Tania Caldwell
September 9, 2021
URB200
In the case of the United States, equality and protection of human rights might not be accurate throughout history. In her essay, Goodfriend argues how many human rights have been ignored by capitalism and globalization by the United States. Goodfriend argues that the support of the United States to other South American countries with domestic government problems had ended in an attempt of imperialism. For example, Goodfriend gives the example of Mexico during the Porfirio Diaz administration; The dictator required the help of the United States to stop the strike of Mexican workers who claimed equal wages as Americans in the same company (Goodfriend,2019). Of course, to support and protect American capitalism, human rights and equality were denied to those workers who should earn the same amount as American workers. Goodfriend called those actions “Solidarity,” but clearly, the solidarity to support a dictator and stop the fight for equality in the workplace shows that the United States’ solidarity goes far from the interest of only help.
In his book review, Langlois explains the universalism of human rights, including the human rights imperialism principle that details how universal rights provide the power to the government to have sovereign to the government, but in an authoritarian administration, the rights of citizens could be taken away by those leaders (Langlois, 2013). The idea of Langlois about universal rights connected with what Goodfriend argues about the occupation of the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nicaragua by the United States. The support and solidarity to solve the domestic issue in those nations have been used to occupy those nations to own later benefit for those national resources (Goodfriend,2019). The United States could be seen as a universal right to have a powerful nation get involved in a domestic issue that a non-wealthy nation might have. However, on the other hand, imperialism takes away the rights and freedom of the nation’s people by exploiting and using those places enrichment to benefit the United States.
Imperialism and human rights declaration demonstrated that human rights under political support might be necessary but could not always help protect all human rights. The United States must use solidarity to locate other nations that later could be used as beneficial nations that increase the power of this imperialist nation. Human rights could vary in nation, culture, and group. However, the capitalist system had caused many human rights violations, such as underpaying Mexican workers who earn less than American coworkers (Goodfriend,2019). Human rights might be more efficient if it could have less connection with political power and centralized the human rights declaration as a universal way to protect humans, bringing equality in gender, race, education, and labor.
