Racial discrimination in the United States is deeply rooted

Original title: deep rooted racial discrimination in the United States
Core reading
The United States passed the civil rights act in 1964, and the legal apartheid no longer exists, but the racial gap in people's hearts has always been difficult to bridge. Experts pointed out that the deep-rooted racism in the United States is the root cause of a series of social problems. The two parties in the United States have great differences on how to treat racial issues. It is by no means easy to achieve racial equality.
The report on the economic situation of American families in 2020 released by the Federal Reserve in May this year shows that African Americans lag behind whites and the average level of American society in terms of family income, housing, bank credit, employment and education. Kyle mace, a scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles, pointed out that in the United States, from the prison rate of different ethnic groups, the wealth gap to educational inequality, many indicators show that ethnic minorities suffer far more than their proportion of the population.
"On the issue of race, the United States is a contradictory country."
American news and world report once commented on the racial issue in the United States: "on the racial issue, the United States is a contradictory country. 156 years after the end of the American Civil War, "a country that serves as a beacon of global freedom" cannot make up for its "original sin" of slavery. " Statistics show that in 1619, the first recorded African blacks were transported to Jamestown, North America, opening the bloody and tearful history of African Americans being enslaved in this "new continent". According to the statistics of the transatlantic slave trade database, in the history of the slave trade, there were at least 36000 "slave trafficking expeditions" from 1514 to 1866, and more than 12.5 million Africans were trafficked to the "new world", and countless people died on the way.
The declaration of independence declared that "all men are created equal", but those who enjoy this so-called "equal right" do not include slaves and African Americans. In the decades from the war of independence to the American Civil War, white slave owners treated and humiliated slaves cruelly. It was not until 1865, after the civil war, that the United States promulgated the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution and announced the abolition of slavery. However, the southern states enacted laws that discriminated against African Americans, implemented apartheid and established the ruling order of white supremacy. African Americans are deprived of the right to vote, equal access to education and other civil rights.
The Tulsa genocide, which took place a hundred years ago, is a dark chapter in American racial history. On May 30, 1921, a 19-year-old African American shoemaker was accused of "invading" a 17-year-old white girl in the elevator. The newspaper hosted by the local white carried an exaggerated but unsubstantiated report the next day. From May 31 to June 1, white mobs attacked and set fire to the black community in Greenwood, and even used aircraft to throw homemade incendiary bombs from the air. The incident killed about 300 African Americans, burned more than 1200 homes and shops to rubble, and displaced about 10000 African Americans. Afterwards, no mob was prosecuted, and the relatives and survivors of the victims were not compensated. At that time, the prevalence of apartheid in the United States, coupled with racial discrimination in federal laws and policies in building standards, housing loans and road planning, most African American families were unable to rebuild their homes. American media pointed out that many Americans today do not know about the Tulsa genocide.
"Racism has always been a systematic feature of American society and all institutions."
On May 25, 2020, George Freud, an African American man, was knelt down and killed by Xiao Wan, a white policeman. Freud's plea of "I can't breathe" once again exposed the pain of the chronic disease of racism in the United States, and the resulting wave of protests swept the United States. The US Foreign Policy magazine commented that the Freud incident has once again revealed the long-standing racial trauma in the United States. African Americans have endured poverty, unemployment and police violence disproportionate to their population in the United States.
According to the 2020 U.S. household economic status report released by the Federal Reserve, in terms of household income, about 41% of African American families have an annual income of less than 2The proportion of white families is 21% and that of American society as a whole is 28%. Only 16% of African American families have an annual income of more than $100000, compared with 33% of white families and 29% of American society as a whole. Data show that in the field of employment, affected by the epidemic, the number of adult employment in the United States decreased by 4 percentage points at the end of 2020 compared with 2019. Among the main employed population aged 25 to 54, the proportion of African Americans dismissed is as high as 23%, much higher than 14% of whites.
African Americans also face serious discrimination in the field of bank credit. About 40 per cent of adults of African descent do not have a bank account or have access to adequate banking services. It is common for banks to refuse to provide mainstream financial services such as credit cards and loans to African Americans; Among whites, the proportion is 12%. When applying for loans, about 41% of African Americans were rejected, compared with 19% of whites.
In the field of law enforcement, African Americans have also suffered more discrimination and violence. A study by Stanford University in 2020 analyzed 100 million traffic interceptions by police departments across the United States and found that African American drivers were 20% more likely to be intercepted by the police than white drivers. Once stopped, African American drivers are twice as likely to be searched as white drivers. According to the statistics of the U.S. Department of justice, African Americans accounted for about 13% of the U.S. population in 2019, but almost 1 / 3 of the total number of prison prisoners in the country. This is equivalent to more than 1000 per 100000 African Americans are being imprisoned, more than five times the proportion of whites.
The report of the American police foundation points out that racial prejudice continues to affect the way law enforcement treats African Americans. Since the founding of the United States, "racism has been a systematic feature of American society and all institutions". In reality, the preconceived racial image definition of African Americans by law enforcement officers has deepened the distrust and friction of African Americans towards law enforcement officers. Recognizing the implicit and explicit racial prejudice in the field of U.S. law enforcement is a top priority for U.S. law enforcement agencies.
"We can't pretend that these systematic racial discrimination don't exist"
The American Smithsonian magazine pointed out: "the United States has a painful history and reality of racism. Facing the deep-rooted racial inequality in the American system and the long and painful history of violence against African Americans is a key step to stimulate meaningful social change." However, the two parties in the United States have great differences on how to treat racial issues. It is by no means easy to achieve racial equality.
The White House recently announced a plan to promote racial equality and narrow the wealth gap between races across the United States, and is committed to promoting the establishment of "critical race theory" courses in public schools across the United States to let teenagers understand the dark side of American racial history. The Democratic controlled house of Representatives once again passed a bill to remove the memorial statues of people who maintained slavery in American history in the Capitol. However, the police reform bill named after Freud has been stranded in the US Senate for several months. There are endless disputes between the two parties about how to look at and tell the history of the founding of the United States and slavery.
Rashoon ray, an expert on public policy at the Brookings Institution in the United States, said that there is systematic racism in the United States. African Americans are more likely to study in schools with less per capita investment in education than whites. Even if they attend an Ivy League school, it is more difficult for them to find a job. It turns out that whites with criminal records are more likely to find jobs than African Americans without criminal records; Under the same credit score, it is more difficult for African Americans to obtain housing loans; African American women are more likely to suffer pregnancy complications and maternal deaths... Hidden discrimination is deeply rooted in American culture, traditions, rules, policies and laws. "We can't pretend that these systematic racial discrimination don't exist".
(Washington, September 5)