Isabel Wilkerson: Parallels Between U.S. History and the Current Era

International Educator had the opportunity to speak with Isabel Wilkerson, the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, NAFSA 2017 Annual Conference & Expo plenary speaker, and author of The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, about the perspective her work, her travels, and her study of U.S. history have given her on the world and international higher education.

From your perspective, do you see the status of the United States as an engaged partner in the world as being at risk?

I can’t speak to the politics of that. I can only say that an understanding of the history of the United States actually could help other countries have a better grounding in how universal, in some ways, the experience is of any group of people. That’s how I see the role of the United States: as a beacon of understanding when it comes to our own history, if people know the history. You have to know the history in order for it to be that beacon.

Is it time for the United States to reconcile its place in recent world history?

I think it’s an ongoing process that is occurring on many levels, official or not. Just look at the interest in genealogy  of families looking back, of genetic DNA testing that allows people to have an understanding of what their family lineage has been, and how migration and interconnectedness in multiple parts of the world can be coursing through one individual’s veins. That’s a powerful way