Foreign Diplomats Examine American Society through the Black Experience

While the U.S. is widely known for promoting freedom and equality abroad, American society has long struggled with inequality at home. Most notably, racial disparities in health, housing, wealth, employment, criminal sentencing, and education – products of centuries of discrimination and institutionalized racism – have negatively impacted Black Americans’ standard of living, as well as prospects for professional and social development. Knowledge of the Black experience in the United States is not only critical to understanding U.S. society, but also American politics and policy decisions, as well. To help newly arrived diplomats better understand why these disparities arise and how they impact policies and activism in the U.S., the Meridian Center for Diplomatic Engagement hosted a Diplocraft program on March 21, 2023 with Travis Adkins, President and CEO of the U.S. African Development Foundation. The discussion sought to provide foreign diplomats with a greater understanding of American history, particularly as it relates to Black history, and the legacy of racial injustice in American society today.

A lecturer of African and Security Studies at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, Adkins guided participants through the complex realities that enslaved Africans and their descendants have had to navigate ever since they were forcedly brought to North America. Participants learned that although today’s challenges are not necessarily comparable to those that enslaved Africans had to face in the early years of the country’s founding, they are a direct result of the enslavement of 600,000 Africans. The enslavement of Africans was only made illegal 158 years ago – and Black Americans have only been given the right to be full citizens for 54 years of American history.

The day’s conversation highlighted the disconnect between the ideals the country upholds and the reality its citizens live on the ground and how this disconnect has laid the foundation for many of the issues the country is grappling with today. It also emphasized the need to embrace and teach the nation’s complex history in order for the country to build from the past and create a more equal and just nation for all.