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Why The Rwandan Genocide Seemed Like A Drive-By Shooting: The Crisis Of Race, Culture, And Policy In The African Diaspora, Seneca Vaught

Seneca Vaught

From the American perspective, the Rwandan genocide developed amidst a cultural and racial crisis of the 1990s. The American attitude towards the crisis in Kigali provides a complex historical case study on how race and culture have profound and often-ignored policy implications. Specifically, the lack of American intervention in Rwanda reveals the complexity race and policy in American history and the shared fates of Africans throughout the world. Taken as a whole, the domestic cultural background of the early 1990s, including the rise of gangsta rap, rioting, and the dilemma of "black-on-black crime," collectively influenced American policy towards Africa at …