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Epilogue: Toward Foreign Policy Justice in the Post-Bush Era
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EPILOGUE Toward Foreign Policy Justice in the Post-Bush Era Michael L. Clemons This volume has confronted a variety of contemporary issues dealing with the nature, quality, and consequences of African American participation in foreign policymaking and foreign affairs. At this critical juncture in U.S. and world history, the unanticipated election of Barack Obama to the office of president of the United States presents an opportunity for greater inclusiveness in the conduct of the nation’s foreign relations. Among the recent important domestic and global developments likely to guide the response to the challenges facing the Obama administration is multiculturalism and the growing recognition of its potential material benefits. The path-breaking post-civil rights era political strategy known as deracialization facilitated the current transition to multiculturalism. In terms of language and symbolism, the complementary qualities of multiculturalism and deracialization, demonstrated in Obama’s pursuit of the presidency and his overall approach to politics, continued into the early phase of governance by his administration. Characteristically, his campaign strategy was a classic deracialization approach, coupled with the tactical use of multiculturalist symbolism. If there is an irony behind his campaign and governance style, it may be his self-identification as African American. He has observed that it was because of race that others perceived and consequently treated him as they did during his formative years. However, today it seems that multiculturalism and deracialization operate in domestic society and at the global level in a manner minimizing the significance of race, ethnicity, and culture. While it is premature to assess Obama’s impact in foreign policymaking , it is useful to consider the implications of his presidency for the future foreign affairs influence of African Americans. Specifically, what do his po- 345 African Americans in Global Affairs 346 litical campaigns and the early days of his administration suggest about how he might pursue and prioritize U.S. foreign policy? In addition, how might his rise to power affect the formulation of a “just” foreign policy program? The Meaning of Multiculturalism Multiculturalism is a transnational ideological force that evolved because of struggles for power and influence between and among elites along racial and ethnic group lines. As ideology, multiculturalism stipulates the basic assumptions and goals for achieving egalitarianism in a diverse society. In contrast to its ideological role, multiculturalism functions too as a potentially guiding social force, at least in the United States, a predictable arrangement for a society that for the most part has had open borders in particular for those abroad seeking to escape political repression and persecution . Inherent to the idea of multiculturalism are the twin principled objectives of democratic proliferation and equal justice. It is on this basis that the American democratic experiment is situated and that the reification of the notion of foreign policy justice can occur. However, uses of the concept multiculturalism offered in the scholarly and popular literature tend to sublimate race and ethnicity as contemporary societal factors influencing resource allocation. This tendency is dangerous in that it can preclude and/or undercut the practice of democracy. For example, although the empirical data show remarkable socioeconomic and political progress across racial lines in the United States since the 1950s, strong national evidence indicates that racial gaps persist in a variety of areas including income, educational achievement, homeownership, poverty , infant mortality, access to quality health care, and criminal incarceration . Regardless of the nation-state within which multiculturalism operates , race, ethnicity, and culture increasingly are filtered through the social lens of multiculturalism, frequently at the expense of genuine problem recognition and the opportunity for measurable material progress of nondominant racial and ethnic groups. In other words, multiculturalism is often leveraged as a societal force (not necessarily geared toward the achievement of social equity and justice), while race and ethnicity are dismissed as serious vantage points for the analysis of social equity and the development of public policy. Furthermore, multiculturalism is the context within which race, ethnicity , and culture evolve and consequently struggle to maintain relevance. Despite this, multiculturalism also is the framework within which Dias- [3.230.76.153] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 19:51 GMT) 347 clemons ) Foreign Policy Justice in the Post-Bush Era pora politics thrives. African American participation in foreign policymaking , therefore, can be enlightening for assessing the effects of race and ethnicity. Indeed, Diaspora politics provides the opportunity to operationalize multiculturalism. In the domestic arena, multiculturalism legitimates Diaspora politics by conditioning traditional governmental institutions for engagement with formerly marginalized or repressed racial...