World War II made human rights an issue that the West believed it was their duty to get behind. The terrible human rights violations by Hitler and the German Nazi regime were so horrific that even the US and the USSR could learn to work together. After the war, the winning side believed that they needed to do something to ensure that these types of human rights violations did not happen on such a massive scale again. However, while countries like the US talked about commitment to human rights, they pretended they couldn’t see the racial injustices happening at home. I believe that the horrors of the Holocaust showed the world that human rights violations such as these should not happen, however they refused to realize that smaller violations are still a problem and need to be fixed.
What I found interesting in Fred Turner’s article “The Family of Man and the Politics of Attention in Cold War America” and Mark Mazower’s article “The Strange Triumph of Human Rights, 1933-1950” was the focus on inconsistencies in human rights in the US after World War II. The Family of Man exhibit in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City was put together to “reveal essential aspects of American character”—in other words, to remind Americans that if they could defeat those who violated human rights abroad, they could do it at home as well (Turner, p. 70). Mazower’s article emphasizes how “human rights” were favored above “minority rights” when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was being drafted (Mazower, p. 378). Although the drafters attributed this to human rights encompassing minority rights, they really chose this broader term because they did not want to deal with minority rights head on. Acknowledging minority rights meant that the US would have to acknowledge that it still had many issues with equal rights for its own citizens. During the postwar period, many minority groups were still dealing with persecution and differences in recognition from the war. Additionally, the Japanese internment camps that were established during the war needed to be reconciled for the country to move forward in terms of minority relations.
Turner’s article is more hopeful about how The Family of Man changed people’s views of human rights after the war, yet I find Mazower’s to be more realistic. Fighting during WWII against Hitler and for the rights of all people was a great rallying call, but the US did not follow through on this domestically and that continues to show in our society today. It’s easier to look at something far away that other people are doing wrong, rather than looking at your own society and how it may have issues as well.
Why is it easier to call someone else on their mistakes than to handle your own similar mistake? Do minority rights fall into the category of human rights? How do the two different? Like in class today, it is interesting to see how we can consider two in the same.
I love that you brought up racial discrimination. It is so important to recognize the hypocrisy at national level and international level. It is also crazy to think about how some viewers even executed this discrimination. Its interesting how many cultures can be accepted but black culture is lower tier.