A fascinating profile of cognitive dissonance in American politics
September 20, 2021 8:13 PM   Subscribe

The Fullbright Paradox: The Fulbright Paradox Race and the Road to a New American Internationalism (should be the paywall free link), published in Foreign Affairs, is far more than the promised retrospective of J. William Fullbright's career and how it has led to and influenced contemporary events (though it is that). It also points out the foreign policy decisions of Fulbright and his contemporaries were, in fact, based on an internalized belief in racial hierarchy, in which white supremacy shaped decisions and, indeed, history. As such, non-white countries were in some ways deliberately stymied in achieving global parity on an economic or social level.

A second facet worth noting is the reframing of what is currently called "Critical Race Theory" as a natural evolution in education:

"Now, a new generation of historians and political scientists is taking the problems of American democracy seriously and placing them in the appropriate comparative light. They are redefining the place of racism and antiracism in U.S. history and resurrecting thinkers, from Du Bois to the civil rights pioneer Pauli Murray, who drew explicit connections between national politics and foreign policy. That process has accompanied a broad and necessary rethinking of racial hierarchies in college syllabuses, publishers’ lists, film scripts, art exhibitions, symphony repertoires, and other areas. That American college students can still study diplomacy without Ralph Bunche, anthropology without Zora Neale Hurston, and history without Carter G. Woodson is a sign of how far the desegregation of the imagination has yet to go. Rediscovering Black voices such as these isn’t a matter of 'political correctness' or 'wokeness'—what self-aware person uses such terms?—or even a question of justice, although it might lead in that direction. It is at base about being less dumb."
posted by CSE279 (8 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
Does anyone have a non-paywalled link?
posted by glaucon at 3:07 AM on September 21, 2021


I wasn't able to find a non paywalled link. However, I did manage to download a pdf. Let me know if you want a copy.
posted by evilDoug at 7:36 AM on September 21, 2021


I'm only a few pages in, but it is really worth signing up to their newsletter to read it for free. Or buying the paper issue. Or getting a PDF from evilDoug.
posted by mumimor at 10:39 AM on September 21, 2021 [2 favorites]


On a web archive link I found enough text to do a search which landed me on a couple of blogs that reprinted the text in full. Try typing "Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations had upended lives and destroyed careers" in your favorite flavor of search engine.
posted by St. Oops at 11:14 AM on September 21, 2021 [2 favorites]


I guess I didn't know them from the cinematographer's party
posted by The otter lady at 4:17 PM on September 21, 2021 [2 favorites]


According to my subscription, this is the paywall free link (but it's the same as the one linked to in the post, so it may also not work):

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/MEdLIaUSzYs

Please let me know if that works or if it's not paywall-free as I'm told it is. Thanks and apologies!
posted by CSE279 at 5:30 PM on September 21, 2021


I can't get the full article because I used to subscribe to Foreign Affairs. The rest my antivirus program says are dangerous.
posted by RuvaBlue at 8:53 PM on September 21, 2021


Accessing via outline.com worked for me.
posted by kochbeck at 12:18 PM on September 27, 2021


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