How Racial Injustice Undermines Democracy Promotion

The Black Lives Matter movement was founded in 2013 after the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. But it was only after the death of George Floyd in 2020 that the movement gained global attention. The Minneapolis police video and the resulting protests spread across social media, sparking international solidarity and conversations about human rights abuses in the United States. Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement around the world have included leaders and government officials from countries that have frequently been accused of human rights abuses in the United States. For example, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying wrote to X: “I can’t breathe.” This is a response to U.S. State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus’ criticism of China’s crackdown on Hong Kong. It is unclear whether Chinese officials truly care about universal human rights. But it is clear that racial injustice and inequality in the United States have easily been exploited to promote democracy around the world, one of America’s long-standing foreign policy goals.

Support for the Black Lives Matter movement has declined since peaking in 2020. But racial disparities in law enforcement persist and the lives of black people have not significantly improved. Videos abusing black Americans are still circulating on social media. This is not just a domestic American problem, as these racial disparities will continue to propagate against America’s promotion of democracy around the world.

In 2019, Larry Diamond wrote in Foreign Affairs that global democracy has been in decline since the early 2000s and that the United States has failed to promote democracy at home and abroad. His diagnosis of global democracy was in stark contrast to what he had predicted some 20 years earlier. This view is consistent with other research that has pointed to two types of failures in American democracy promotion. First, the United States’ foreign policy failed to protect democracy and human rights around the world, despite its stated foreign policy principle of promoting democracy. The second is that it has failed to garner sufficient support from the public to become the world’s most powerful democracy at home and to spread American democracy globally.

The process of developing democracy around the world has gone hand in hand with the growing power of the United States, and the United States has contributed more to promoting democracy around the world than any other country. However, recent criticism has emerged that the U.S. government has failed to protect democracy and human rights around the world and has given up its leadership position to consider national affairs and economic interests. The U.S. government remains allied with authoritarian governments in the Middle East and has given way to authoritarian powers in Asia and Africa. Moreover, North Korea’s democracy promotion program has not focused on confronting the dictator. These policies were often labeled hypocrisy because the government did not live up to its principles of supporting democratic self-government and human rights, which it had publicly stated at least since President Wilson, who led the United States into World War I. “Let’s make the world safe for democracy.”

Perhaps the most important event that further highlighted American hypocrisy was the Iraq War and counterterrorism policy following the September 11 attacks. According to Diamond, global democracy has been losing its main supporter, the United States, since early 2000. Despite the U.S. government’s rhetoric about promoting freedom around the world, many suspect that the promotion of democracy is a cover for its military intervention during the Iraq War. A Gallup poll on America’s place in the world supports this suspicion. Global satisfaction with America’s position began to decline in the early 2000s, coinciding with the decline of democracy around the world. The recent failure of the U.S. war in Afghanistan has people around the world questioning the principles of U.S. foreign policy for promoting democracy.

The American public has long been largely supportive of the desire to extend American values ​​to other countries and advance American political and economic interests abroad. Scholars have noted that America’s reputation as a champion of democratic values ​​has been tarnished by domestic problems, and many Americans have witnessed the decline of democracy in their own country and thus lost confidence in promoting American democracy around the world. These problems include racism, monetary politics, political gridlock, and economic inequality, which have led many Americans to believe that the government should focus more on solving domestic problems rather than spending resources on other countries. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2001, 29% of Americans agreed that promoting democracy was a top foreign policy priority, but that figure had fallen to 18% in 2024. A survey experiment conducted in 2013 revealed Americans’ support for democracy. Promotions are generally not powerful and only become more powerful when they are perceived to be too costly or have a high risk of failure. Recently, the riots at the U.S. Capitol and the death of George Floyd shocked many Americans and the world. This has raised questions about whether American democracy remains a beacon of how democracy works.

A closely related, but less widely discussed issue, than the failure to promote American democracy is how authoritarian leaders easily exploit American domestic issues for their own propaganda. One of the most recent examples is El Salvador’s authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele. After the assassination attempt on former President Trump in July 2024, he posted one word on X: “Democracy?” Authoritarian leaders have used America’s domestic problems to highlight American hypocrisy and invalidate criticism of human rights violations.

The most common goal of authoritarian leaders has been racial segregation in America. This is not surprising to many Americans, since during the Cold War, leaders of communist countries condemned America’s racial inequality. African Americans were lynched in response to human rights abuses by U.S. officials. When Cuban leader Fidel Castro visited Harlem, New York in 1960, he tried to draw the world’s attention to racism in the United States. These racial injustices continue to be a hot topic among government officials around the world, just as they are prevalent when leaders discuss them. During the Korean War, North Korea distributed propaganda leaflets urging black soldiers to lay down their weapons and fight for their rights. The problem is that racial inequality in the United States is being fed into the propaganda of leaders opposing the U.S.-led promotion of democracy and human rights, and these messages are spreading more quickly and widely through social media. More importantly, such a message to a global audience denouncing racism in America is not entirely wrong.

When a right-wing rally was held in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 following the Charleston church shooting and controversy over the removal of Confederate monuments, the North Korean government released a white paper condemning the racial violence that occurred in Charlottesville. This is a typical example that shows the pinnacle of the current government’s racist policy. North Korea said that true freedom does not exist in the United States, adding, “The United States can never hide its identity as a serious human rights violator.” More recently, when Private Travis King, a black American, defected to North Korea in 2023, North Korean media reported that King’s reason for defecting was due to ‘inhumane abuse and racial discrimination’ in the US military and American society. North Korea also recalled the refusal of 21 American soldiers taken prisoner during the Korean War to be repatriated to the United States, one of whom said, “It was racism at home rather than Chinese propaganda that inspired my decision.” This was utilized. Written by a Chinese official for a propaganda pamphlet.

The Black Lives Matter movement that has spread globally has also provided authoritarian leaders with a great opportunity to highlight America’s problems. About a week after George Floyd’s death, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told “The United States has committed many atrocities.” Other Iranian officials also took the opportunity to spread their own stories of American brutality. In 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin disagreed with U.S. criticism of how his government treated pro-democracy groups in the country and said mistreatment of African Americans had led to disorder, destruction and violations of U.S. law. He compared Russian pro-democracy groups to Black Lives Matter protesters, adding that the government would not allow that to happen. Chinese official Zhao Lijian said, “Racism against ethnic minorities in the United States is a chronic disease in American society.” People’s Daily also reported, “Some politicians in the United States are criticizing China for putting an end to the chaos, but defining themselves as a beacon of democracy and human rights.” “Such double standards reveal their hypocrisy, which stems from ulterior political motives.” Chinese experts believe that these remarks are powerful enough to support the Chinese government’s efforts to respond to the United States.

On March 1, 2021, a debate about racism and human rights took place at the United Nations General Assembly. After U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield discussed racial discrimination in Burma and China, China’s Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Dai Bing asked: He gave America “the license to mount its high horse and tell other nations what to do.” “If the United States truly cares about human rights, it must address deep-rooted problems at home, including racism, social injustice, and police brutality,” Bing said. In October 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Council rejected a U.S. proposal to hold a debate on China’s human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang. This rejection was a huge victory for China and was no accident. Racial injustice in America has undermined the moral authority of human rights. In August 2022, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination concluded that the United States had failed to implement international legal standards against racial discrimination. Last year, Human Rights Watch also noted the highest incarceration rate in the world and the overrepresentation of black and brown people in U.S. prisons.