Black America Must Pay Attention to Global Power

Decisions made in elite global spaces shape budgets, priorities, and power at home.

Published on Mar. 2, 2026

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This article argues that Black Americans cannot afford to ignore global power dynamics, as decisions made in elite international forums like the World Economic Forum in Davos have significant impacts on issues like funding, militarization, and climate change that directly affect Black communities in the United States. The author traces a history of Black leaders who have long understood the connections between racial justice at home and global arrangements of power, from W.E.B. Du Bois to Martin Luther King Jr. The piece contends that Black internationalism has always been seen as a threat to those in power, and that ignoring these global spaces comes at the peril of Black Americans.

Why it matters

The article makes the case that global power structures and decisions have direct consequences for Black communities in the U.S., shaping issues like budgets, militarization, and climate change that disproportionately impact Black Americans. It argues that racial justice at home cannot be separated from global arrangements of power.

The details

The piece outlines how decisions made in elite global forums like the World Economic Forum in Davos, NATO councils, and negotiations over strategic territories like Greenland, determine funding priorities, militarization, and resource allocation - all of which have significant impacts on Black communities in the U.S. The author traces a history of Black leaders, from W.E.B. Du Bois to Martin Luther King Jr., who have long understood these connections between racial justice at home and global power dynamics. The article contends that when global elites prioritize issues like growth, security, and climate in ways that benefit the powerful, it comes at the expense of marginalized communities.

  • In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his 'Beyond Vietnam' speech, connecting a nation's spending on war over social uplift to 'spiritual death'.
  • More than a century ago, W.E.B. Du Bois argued that the 'color line' was global, not merely American, and that Western wealth was built on colonial extraction and racialized labor across Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.

The players

W.E.B. Du Bois

A prominent African American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, and Pan-Africanist who argued more than a century ago that the 'color line' was global, not merely American.

Ida B. Wells

An African American journalist, activist, and researcher who took the fight against lynching overseas, exposing U.S. racial terror to international audiences and embarrassing a nation that claimed moral leadership abroad while tolerating barbarism at home.

Martin Luther King Jr.

A prominent African American civil rights leader who in his 1967 'Beyond Vietnam' speech made the explicit connection between a nation's spending on war over social uplift and 'spiritual death'.

Paul Robeson

An African American actor, singer, and civil rights activist who insisted that Black freedom in the United States was inseparable from the liberation of oppressed people worldwide, for which the U.S. government revoked his passport, destroyed his career, and branded him a threat.

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What they’re saying

“A nation that spends more on war than on social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

— Martin Luther King Jr. (Beyond Vietnam* speech (1967)

The takeaway

This article argues that Black Americans cannot afford to ignore global power dynamics, as decisions made in elite international forums have direct consequences for issues like budgets, militarization, and climate change that disproportionately impact Black communities in the U.S. It calls for Black Americans to pay closer attention to these global spaces of power, building on a long tradition of Black internationalism that has always been seen as a threat to those in power.