Jazz diplomacy promoted color-blindness abroad while segregation persisted at home

Evidence

Penny Von Eschen writes that between the 1950s and the 1970s the U.S. State Department sent African American jazz musicians abroad to “win the hearts and minds” of the Third World and to counter the country’s racist image with a depiction of the United States as a color-blind democracy. Like many attempts to re-create one’s self-image, this diplomatic effort was built on a deep contradiction: while African American culture was being promoted abroad, at home racial segregation and inequality persisted. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 1248 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Cold War diplomacy promoted Black culture abroad while segregation persisted at home — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race…, 1248; Colorblindness ideology rearticulated civil rights gains into a new racism — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 192

Broader Connections

• Cold War diplomacy promoted Black culture abroad while segregation persisted at home #expands (0.92) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 1248