The Role Of Cosmopolitanism In America

During the 19th and 20th century African Americans faced Discrimination in the United States. Three African Americans took roles of leadership and began trying to uplift the lives of blacks in society. Those who took control of this movement were Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey and W.E.B Dubois. These activists wanted the same result and implemented different techniques to follow their similar hopes for blacks in America. Each of these leaders has allowed America to develop in extensive ways for several years and those yet to come. Alternate pathways were taken by each leader to resolve the overall issue of racism. These issues include things such as not having the right to vote,own property and prevent lynchings. This paper will argue that had Garvey's theory of the new negro and Dubois’ ideas of education been implemented, racism in America would have been reduced because the allocation of education would allow for their to become a new negro. The application of Marcus Garvey's theory including thoughts of W.E.B Dubois’ on racism would have brought white power to an end.

The black race has faced many hardships throughout American history. The harsh treatment is apparent through the brutal slavery era, the Civil Rights movement, or even now where sparks of racial separation emerge in urbanized areas of Baltimore, Chicago, and Detroit. Black Americans must do something to defend their right as an equal American. “I Am Not Your Negro” argues that the black race will not thrive unless society stands up against the conventional racism that still appears in modern America. “The Other Wes Moore” argues an inspiring message that proves success is a product of one’s choices instead of one’s environment or expectations.

America in 1857 was a “Nation on the Brink.” Relationships between the Northern and Southern states had been strained for decades. During the 1850 's, the situation exploded. The Compromise of 1850 served as a clear warning that the slavery issue—relatively dormant since the Missouri Compromise of 1820—had returned. African Americans existence in America has been a disaster ever since they have been here. Every avenue of their cultural, economic, literary, political, religious, and social values has been violated to no avail, and then only until the

John Locke, a social contract theorist, says that mankind is equal and independent and “no one ought to harm another of his life, health, liberty or possessions.” When humans enter into a society and form a contract, which leads to government, Locke holds that it is the job of the government to take on the responsibility of protecting the life, liberty and property of its inhabitants; however, the US government failed to protect these rights for Black Americans affected by slavery. Adam Smith, an economist and political theorist, believed that the government should defend and be proprietors of justice. The American government’s purpose, for Smith and Locke, is to promote justice through flourishing ; specifically economic flourishing for Smith. Sadly, history reveals that this was not the circumstance. During the 1700’s, America was one of several countries to embrace chattel slavery. Though slavery is no longer legal in the US, its effects have still rippled the waters of history. Today America stands on trial. It is guilty of failing to fulfill its role as a government by promoting flourishing. Slavery and segregation in the United States have impeded the economic flourishing amongst Black American communities. History and literature will serve as evidence of this crime in exploring the impact of slavery and segregation in education, familial structure and economics.

“The South confronts one grave moral challenge. It must not exploit the fact of Negro backwardness to preserve the Negro as a servile class… Let the South never permit itself to do this. So long as it is merely asserting the right to impose superior mores for whatever period it takes to affect a genuine cultural equality between the races, and so long as it does so by humane and charitable means, the South is in step with civilization, as is the Congress that permits it to function.” (5)

The system has also privatized the school and prison system, which go hand in hand with the economic reality of today. The racial disparities of today, was triggered by the downfall of the economic system that is in place right now. Families are struggling and individuals are looking for a way out. This paper will identify the realities African Americans face with the issue of economic justice along in the United States.

After the colonization era, African American population were basically left without rights. They were not allowed to have a decent job, and they were not even allowed to vote because they were not considered citizens. When African Americans finally conquered their freedom and acceptance in 1950s through civil right movements, later in 1960s the definition of democracy started to mean something opposite of its true meaning. Shelby Steele is a well known African American author, professor, and commentator on race relations. Steele wrote several books, commentaries and essays, and one of them is “The New Sovereignty” in 1990s. In “The New Sovereignty”, Steele argues about how the American society turned democracy into a very selfish sovereignty.

We want to see the cooperative concept applied in business and banking. We want…” The excerpt reads further as a long dissertation of specific goals of the organization, which include black participation in government and economy, defiance against profiteers of slums, and the overall shift to a socialist America. In the socialist train of thought, society is invested in the integrity and economic participation of its people, and, therefore, blacks become almost invaluable to America. Here, each individual is seen as vital to the nation, because, if not, then the whole foundation of the socialist philosophy collapses. And so, it is implied in this document that a change for a new system of government in a new America is needed, which greatly contrasts from simply making people aware of a perfect world with guaranteed civil rights.

Marable (2002) describes the correlation of the fact that “The profits from the sale of human beings helped to establish the foundations of American capitalism” (p. 30) with the Dred Scott decision that “[black people] had no rights which the white man was bound to respect” (p. 35). This connection explains how the representation of African Americans as inferior was not destroyed once slavery ended, it merely shifted with progress in order to maintain the socioeconomic status of white people so they could continue to profit from it. Once slavery ended, black people lost their value as laborers and racial discrimination changed to prevent them from interacting with white people as much as possible. However, DuBois’s numerous pictures of churches and school buildings show that the African American community was capable of establishing and understanding the “white” institutions of education, construction, and

The concept of the global South began to grow its roots after the American Civil War. Following the Civil War, the South began to redevelop once they faced radical changes. One can see the transformations made in the South as internal colonization by the North. Even though it can be considered internal colonization, “as race became, for members of the Verein, including Du Bois, a transnational phenomenon, not localized in the southern United Sates or in eastern Prussia, but rather a global “color line,” the difference between internal and external colonization began to fade. Internal colonization became ever more like racial conquest in the 1890s.” With race, came the issues surrounding freedom and labor, “in Africa, as in the

The election of President Obama marks the most noteworthy political accomplishment for African Americans in the United States during the post-civil rights revolution, thus bringing about a change in the country’s social and political landscape that was steeped in racial discrimination since the founding of this great nation. Because social and political conditions are subject to constant change, President Obama’s

In the pursuit to gain the greatest understanding and respect of human rights projects and global social justice cosmopolitanism is necessary. Looking at cosmopolitism’s roots, features and limits through the lenses of authors Fine, Held and Calhoun to further address the importance of this ideal regardless of its weaknesses. Following the debate of whether critics are right about cosmopolitanisms liberal biases undermining its critical potential will be discussed, to suggest where cosmopolitanism needs adjustments in order to progress. Lastly, this paper will consider the idea that cosmopolitan ideals are more necessary then ever given the resurgence of nationalist and isolationist politics worldwide. Through an overall analysis of

This earth that all humans live on is becoming increasingly globalized, and the question often arises of what this means when analyzing the world through an ethical perspective. A globalized world most definitely demands the need for a cosmopolitan ethic at its most basic definition, despite the term being something that has been around long before globalization become a relevant term. Hutchings defined cosmopolitanism in her book Global Ethics, on page 10: “Cosmopolitanism, essentially any form of moral universalism that takes the human individual as the foundation of moral value.” Throughout this paper, I will discuss why globalization demands a cosmopolitan point of view through the three branches of globalization: political, social and economic.

Those of African-American ancestry have perhaps suffered the greatest tragedies in American History, but they have also overcome the most. As I am writing this paper we have a well respected and very intelligent African-American Secretary of State, Mr. Collin Powell and are set to have an equally intelligent African American in the wings ready to replace him. Assuming the Dr. Condoleezza Rice is confirmed by the senate she will become the first female African American to serve in this position.

Cosmopolitanism does have its limits in achieving its aims. It is necessary that one tracks the historical roots of cosmopolitanism to understand what visions it sets out to propose for IR. In Hellenic era, cosmopolitanism finds its meaning when Alexandrian intermarriage took place (Russel, 1945: 220), introducing the concept of ‘mankind as a whole’. Similar notion came into being in Stoicism in which people, apart from their own local identity, are united under a world citizenship (Nussbaum, 2010: 156). Kant, in the eighteenth century, furthered expounded on cosmopolitanism by suggesting a rule of cosmopolitan law and universal liberties (Held, 2010: 3).