Walter Jackson on Gunnar Myrdal

The Fulbright Chair in American Studies at Uppsala this year, Walter Jackson (North Carolina State University) gave a talk on Gunnar Myrdal and his critique of racial inequality in the USA. Jackson focused on Myrdal’s 1944 study of race in America, An American Dilemma — a first edition of which is here held aloft by Erik Åsard, director of the Swedish Institute for North American Studies:

Jackson knows quite about Myrdal’s research trips to the States, which were interrupted by the onset of World War II as well as a number of personal crises with the Myrdal family. He talked about the ways that Myrdal used his identity as a foreign outsider to break into both black and white social milieus in the American south: “I’m from Sweden and don’t know anything about the race problem, what can you tell me?” was apparently his winning line. At the same time, Myrdal’s status as as a member of the Swedish Parliament allowed him access to high-ranking politicians and policy makers in all ranks of local and national government.

Jackson also spent some time on the book’s controversial last few chapters, which as we now know were authored by an American graduate student rather than Myrdal himself. However, Myrdal took full responsibility for their content, despite his lack of personal oversight. The degree to which he himself agreed with their contents (most notably, that African-American culture was characterized by pathology) is still argued over.

A number of both Swedish and American Fulbright grantees came to Uppsala for the event, as well as tours of the cathedral, museum, and other local sights. Here we are atop the castle hill:

Finally, a shot of the sun slowly going down over the Fyris river, taken on a stroll southward along the banks towards the municipal park: