Ferguson Affects Our Foreign Affairs?

With everything that has been going on with the Ferguson and Garner cases regarding racial inequality in the U.S, news has spread quickly to other countries, giving them, "free propaganda rides". Our problems with race have become "front-page news" and allow other countries opportunities to argue that our problems reveal "American hypocrisy".

The article, "Ferguson and Garner Cases Hurt U.S. Foreign Policy", by Jeff Stein, suggests that President Obama should “take a page out of Kennedy’s book”, and deal with the racial issues the U.S. is dealing with today the same way Kennedy did in the 60’s. Kennedy took action quickly, working to desegregate and rule out any reasons for Russia, with whom the U.S was in the midst of the cold war with, to the U.S hypocritical for trying to police the world without policing themselves first. JFK said, “We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home... but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other, that this is a land of the free except for the Negroes; that we have no second-class citizens except Negroes; that we have no class or cast system, no ghettos, no master race except with respect to Negroes?”, convincing the country and others that racial inequality was not okay with him. By acting upon the issues at hand, JFK was able to “change the narrative abroad”, and in the article, President Obama is called upon to do the same. Mary Dudziak, a professor at both Stanford and Emery and author of Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy, is quoted in the article saying that the, “racial problems in the U.S.” undermines “our ability to criticize”. She then suggests that “Obama needs to present [racial discrimination] as one of the nation’s most pressing and urgent problems”, claiming the alternative would be, “Ceding the battleground to the very dark forces now closing in on Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria”. Nuclear war was at stake in the 60’s, but now, even though, “The U.S. has consolidated its power”, it, “still wants and needs a powerful, positive message to compete for young minds tempted by the siren song of Islamic revolutionaries”, closing with the fact that, “We can’t pursue a human rights agenda abroad if we’re not protecting them at home”.

The Monroe Doctrine was a US foreign policy announced in an annual address to Congress made by President James Monroe regarding Latin American countries in 1823. If the U.S was still following the Monroe Doctrine today, it would not be trying to set an example for other countries in the first place because of the “Separate Spheres of Influence” portion of the Monroe Doctrine, which states that the U.S wouldn’t meddle in any other country’s business and all of the other countries shouldn’t meddle in the U.S’s; so there would be no concern for setting an example in the first place. Also in the Monroe Doctrine is the “Non-colonization” rule which states that no country can dominate another. Although this portion of the doctrine is talking about colonizing and the idea of dominating other countries and the U.S. is not doing that, the idea of the U.S. being the golden country and police for all the others would not exist if we were still following the doctrine today. The last part of the doctrine is the “Non-intervention” portion which states that the U.S. won’t interfere in other countries’ affairs unless it directs the U.S directly. If we were still following it, the idea of setting an example and trying to help other countries’ with their issues wouldn’t exist anyways, so the issue of appearing hypocritical wouldn’t either.

   

The whole point of the article was that if President Obama doesn’t act fast, our country will appear as hypocritical to others because we would be policing other countries without policing our own. Our foreign policy today allows us to intervene, influence, and step in when other countries are struggling, which is great; but, it also unfortunately leads to bad press when it seems we don’t have our act together with our own country, causing the U.S. to appear as unfit and hypocritical when helping others. If the Monroe Doctrine were in place today there would be no issue of this, but, our country may appear as weak and selfish for not helping others and lending a hand when needed.

Article Source: Stein, Jeff. "Ferguson and Garner Cases Hurt U.S. Foreign Policy." Newsweek. NEWSWEEK LLC, 5 Dec. 2014. Web. 05 Dec. 2014.