How Racial Injustice Affects Democracy Promotion

The Black Lives Matter movement was founded in 2013, following the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. However, it was after the death of George Floyd in 2020 that the movement received worldwide attention. Videos of the Minneapolis police and subsequent protests have gone viral on social media, sparking international solidarity and discussion about human rights violations in the United States. Among the supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement around the world were leaders and government officials of countries that were often accused of human rights violations by the US. response to US State Department Spokesman Morgan Ortagus on China’s criticism of Hong Kong. Whether Chinese officials really cared about human rights around the world is unknown; however, it is clear that racial injustice and inequality in the US were easily used against the long-term goals of American foreign policy: promoting democracy around the world.

Support for the Black Lives Matter movement has declined since its peak in 2020. However, racial disparities in law enforcement persist and the lives of black Americans have not been greatly improved. Videos of the mistreatment of black Americans are going viral on social media. This is not just a US domestic problem because such racial divisions will continue to fuel America’s anti-democracy propaganda around the world.

In 2019, Larry Diamond wrote in Foreign Affairs that democracy in the world has been in decline since the early 2000s and that the US has failed to promote democracy at home and abroad. His diagnosis of democracy in the world was very different from what he had expected twenty years ago. This view is consistent with other research that has identified two types of failure in promoting American democracy. The first is the failure of US foreign policies to protect democracy and human rights around the world, despite its stated foreign policy of promoting democracy. The second is the failure at home to become a powerful global democracy and to gain enough public support to spread American democracy around the world.

The development of democracy around the world has been accompanied by the growth of US power, and the US, more than any other country, has contributed to the promotion of democracy around the world. However, critics argue that the US government has recently been unable to protect democracy and human rights around the world and has abandoned its leadership position to care about national and economic interests. The US government is still allied with democratic governments in the Middle East and has given way to authoritarian powers in Asia and Africa. Moreover, its democracy promotion programs have not focused on confronting dictatorships. Such policies are often called hypocrisy since the government has failed to live up to its principles – a commitment to support democratic self-government and human rights – that have been publicly proclaimed since at least President Wilson, who led America into World War I. to make “the world safe for democracy.”

Perhaps the most important event that emphasized American hypocrisy was the war in Iraq and the policies against terrorism since the attacks of September 11. According to Diamond, the world’s democracies have been losing their best supporter, the US, since the beginning of 2000. Although the US government talks about promoting freedom around the world, many suspect that the promotion of democracy was a cover for military intervention during the Iraq War. A Gallup poll on the state of the US in the world supports this suspicion. Global satisfaction with the US position began to decline in the early 2000s, coinciding with the decline of democracy around the world. The recent failure of the US war in Afghanistan has made people around the world question the goal of US foreign policy to promote democracy.

For a long time, the US public strongly supported the desire to extend American values ​​to other countries and to advance US political and economic interests abroad. Scholars have pointed out that the reputation of the US as a champion of democratic values ​​has been damaged by domestic problems, and many Americans have seen the decline of democracy in their own country and, as a result, have lost their confidence in promoting American democracy around the world. Problems like these include racism, money politics, political breakdown, and economic inequality, which has led many Americans to think that the government should focus more on solving domestic problems than spending resources abroad. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2001, 29 percent of Americans agreed that the promotion of democracy should be a foreign policy priority, but this number dropped to 18 percent in 2024. promotion is usually not strong and is only strong if it is considered too expensive or at high risk of failure. Recently, the riots in the US Capitol, and the death of George Floyd, have shocked the whole world, not to mention the majority of Americans – raising the question of whether American democracy remains a beacon of how democracy is done.

A closely related but less widely discussed issue of the failure of US democracy promotion is how America’s domestic problems are exploited by authoritarian leaders through their propaganda. One recent example is the authoritarian leader of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele. After the assassination attempt on former President Trump in July 2024, he added one word to the X: “Democracy?” Authoritarian leaders have used America’s domestic problems to highlight America’s hypocrisy and invalidate criticism of human rights violations.

The most common target of authoritarian leaders has been racial inequality in the US. This is not surprising to many Americans because, during the Cold War, the leaders of communist countries called racial injustice in the US. he punished African Americans for human rights violations committed by American officials. When Cuban leader Fidel Castro visited Harlem, New York in 1960, he tried to draw the world’s attention to the racial divide in the US. in conflict with the US During the Korean War, North Korea distributed propaganda leaflets asking Black soldiers to lay down their arms and fight for their rights. The problem is that racial injustice in America feeds the rhetoric of leaders against the US-led promotion of democracy and human rights and such messages spread quickly and widely through social media. More importantly, for a global audience, such anti-American messages are completely wrong.

When the Unite the Right Rally took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, following the controversy surrounding the Charleston church shooting and the removal of Confederate monuments, the North Korean government released a white paper that described racial violence as occurring in Charlottesville. “a classic example of the acme of the current administration’s racist policy.” North Korea added that real freedom did not exist in America and that it “will never hide who it is as a major abuser of human rights.” Recently, in 2023, when Private Travis King, who is a Black American, crossed over to North Korea, the North Korean media reported that “brutal treatment and racism” in the US military and in the US society were the reasons for King’s defection. North Korea also reminded us of the 21 American soldiers it captured during the Korean War who refused to be returned to the US Clarence Adams, one of the soldiers said, “It was racism at home rather than Chinese propaganda that motivated my decision,” and this was used. it is the Chinese officials of the propaganda leaflets.

The Black Lives Matter movement, which has spread around the world, has also given authoritarian leaders a great opportunity to highlight America’s problems. Almost a week after the death of George Floyd, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wrote on X, “The people’s slogan of #ICantBreathe, which can be heard in large protests across the US, is the voice from the hearts of all nations against them. The US has committed many atrocities.” Other Iranian officials also took the opportunity to spread their story about the brutality of US actions. In 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin disagreed with US criticism of his government’s treatment of pro-democracy groups in his country and said the mistreatment of African-Americans had led to chaos, destruction and violations of US law. Comparing Russia’s pro-democracy party to Black Lives Matter protesters, he added that his government would not allow such things to happen. Chinese official Zhao Lijian said “Racism against ethnic minorities in the US is an incurable disease in American society.” The People’s Daily also said, “While criticizing China for ending the chaos, some US politicians call themselves beacons of democracy and human rights. Such double standards reveal their hypocrisy driven by ulterior political motives.” Experts in China say that such statements have the potential to make many Chinese people support the Chinese Government’s efforts to fight America.

A debate on racism and human rights took place during the UN General Assembly on March 1, 2021. When Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, discussed racism in Burma and China, the UN Deputy Ambassador to China, Dai Bing, asked. which gave the US “license to get on the high horse and tell other countries what to do.” Bing said, “If the US really cares about human rights, it must address the deep problems of racism, social injustice and police brutality in its own country.” In October 2022, the UN Rights Council rejected a US-led proposal to hold a debate on China’s human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang. This rejection was a huge victory for China, and it was no coincidence. Racial injustice in the US has undermined its moral authority on human rights. In August 2022, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination concluded that the US had failed to implement international anti-racism standards. Last year, Human Rights Watch also revealed the highest incarceration rate in the world and the overrepresentation of black and brown people in US prisons.