African American Paternalism

INTRODUCTION
The history of the West and their interactions with those in Africa especially, are fraught with paternalism and the trend is continuing today. American journalists in particular, only cover the negatives of Africa while ignoring the countries’ political and economic success stories. This narrative only continues the narratives of Africa’s helplessness. By downplaying African countries abilities to plan and follow through with efforts to develop and improve themselves, it harms not only relations between the countries but also diminishes the effectiveness of foreign aid that the West offers to many African countries by putting limitations and restrictions on how it may be used, because the West thinks they know what is best for
those in countries that are struggling, even though often it could be applied in more effective and practical ways if the African countries were not limited by the West’s backwards ideas of their own agency.

PATERNALISM
Paternalism occurs when it is believed that a person or group needs interference from a more mature group, because they cannot be trusted to do the right thing by themselves if left to their own devices. The idea stems from how a parent would interact with their child. Parents are paternalistic towards their children in “the form of advice, persuasion, conditionality, and coercion”, but they would not trust their children to make “future-oriented, self-improving decisions with the family’s money” (Race, Paternalism, and Foreign Aid). It is the idea that a group or person must be protected from their own inability to function, they need interference from an inherently superior person or group, that the “lower group” has no agency. The paternalistic attitudes of the West towards the rest of the world is not a new idea, Kipling’s White Man’s Burden compares people who are not white to children, and that those in the West must “take up the White Man’s burden” to civilize them (Kipling). Today this idea is perpetuated by the Western, and particularly American, media.

MEDIA
The American people have embraced the Africa that is portrayed in the media, emphasizing the decimation from war, disaster, and disease. The mass media in the West continues to popularize and reinforce the idea of African countries helplessness. By continuing to portray African countries as victims by only covering the violent conflicts, and other disasters, the West dehumanizes Africans and all of their achievements and experiences are lost in the sole coverage of the negative. When the media in Western countries do not cover any of the positive experiences and actions in Africa and other predominantly black countries, it is essentially overlooking the potential agency of foreign black communities. Because of this negative representation, many Americans continue to view countries in Africa as objects of pity that can only be helped and saved by the West.

CHARITIES/FOREIGN AID
Charities are always, to some degree, inherently paternalistic.
While many are drawn to charities because of morals and a sense of responsibility to help, and while that is a valuable desire, many do not consider the paternalistic aspects of their actions. The care for others never occurs between equals, inside American society it can be seen often in the care of the elderly, but also in how America interacts with other countries on an international scale. The paternalistic attributes could be minimalized though if in the process of giving, more agency was attributed to the recipients, unfortunately this is not the case in much of the foreign aid offered by
America.

While inside America, white Americans are less charitable and generous in their policy preferences towards those who are non white, it seems to be the opposite when looking outside to other countries (Race, Paternalism, and Foreign Aid). Americans are much more supportive of giving aid to black foreigners, especially in Africa, than white foreigners even when the need is the same. This difference is because of the continuing racial paternalism that is further engrained in the way the media represents and reports on African countries. Americans see black Africans as “helpless victims, rather than active agents in their own development outcomes” (White Americans). Many African countries are seen by the West as being unable to develop without help from the Western providers, while poor European countries are considered to be able to help themselves (Race, Paternalism, and Foreign Aid). It is not based in the idea of need, but the foreign poor’s agency. The West considers poor white foreigners to have “a greater capacity for action than black foreigners”, therefor, in the West’s eyes, the black poor foreigner need ‘saving’ by the West (Race, Paternalism, and Foreign Aid). When giving aid to foreign poor countries of African descent, the way the aid is distributed also reflects the paternalistic views of the West. There are rarely no-strings-attached cash given, it is covered with paternalistic interference by restricting the “recipient’s behavioral choice set (e.g. requiring individuals to change their lifestyles or countries their policies)” (Race, Paternalism, and Foreign Aid). When aid is given to a country it is often expected to pursue western ideals of government and societal norms, whether or not they fit with the culture’s own ideas (Peters). The continuation of paternalistic views has the potential to reduce aid’s effectiveness by controlling what recipients can do with it. The continual paternalistic attitudes that the West holds towards Africa in particular, is making efforts to provide aid to them less effective and diminishes the extensive progress and work that these countries have accomplished over the years.

CONCLUSION
The West is, to some degree, paternalistic towards most other countries and communities, but nowhere more so than towards those in Africa.
By attributing less agency to poor African countries than other poor countries, it ignores those communities’ political and economic success stories. When a country in the West believes they know what is best for a country outside of their own, it is not only not true usually, but it diminishes the assistance that they are trying to offer. The interference of paternalism is justified by saying that the group will be better off because of it, but as we can see from the past, it is rarely true and an idea that those in the West must work hard to re-contextualize their understanding of countries outside of the West to fit with their true
experience.

Works Cited
Baker, Andy. "Race, Paternalism, and Foreign Aid: Evidence from U.S. Public Opinion." American Political Science Review 109.01 (2015): 93-109. University of Colorado at Boulder, Feb. 2015. Web. 2 Apr. 2017.
Baker, Andy. "White Americans Are Supportive of Redistribution to Foreigners of African Descent." USAPP. N.p., 15 Mar. 2015. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.
Dworkin, Gerald. "Paternalism." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, 12 Feb. 2017. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.
Peters, Nitish. "International Aid: Western Paternalism or a Moral Imperative?" CIHA Blog. N.p., 18 July 2016. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.