WWII anti-Nazi propaganda delegitimized racism as antidemocratic

Evidence

Not only did academe turn against notions of biological racism, but much of the propaganda in the United States during World War II portrayed racism as inherently antidemocratic. As Woodward (1974) noted, “American war propaganda stressed above all else the abhorrence of the West for Hitler’s brand of racism and its utter incompatibility with the democratic faith for which we fought” (p. 131). This ideological struggle bore clear relevance to the place of blacks at that time and became an important basis for appeals to end segregation (Woodward, 1974, pp. 130–134). — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3357

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the discussion of ideological justification in the earlier chapter on system justification; warfare framing of racism as ‘un-American’ parallels rhetorical moves in other liberation movements. — connects to: Anti-Semitism in Allied democracies was concealed but widespread during the war — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1482
• CANDY: Nice conversational nugget: the US government’s own WWII propaganda inadvertently armed the civil rights movement’s rhetoric against segregation.