The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2004 published by the Press Office in the State Council, China pointed out that racial discrimination is deeply rooted in the United States and permeates all aspects of social life.
This human rights record says that people of color in the United States are generally poor and their living conditions are far worse than those of whites. According to the British "Guardian" reported on June 9, 2004, the net assets of white families in 2002 were $88,000, which was 1 1 times that of Hispanic families and nearly 15 times that of African-American families.
According to statistics, the number of blacks living below the poverty line is three times that of whites. The average life expectancy of blacks is six years less than that of whites.
Records show that American minorities are discriminated against in employment and occupation. According to USA Today on May 5, 2004, in 2003, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received 29,000 allegations of racial prejudice in the workplace. Statistics released by the US Department of Labor show that by the end of June 2004, the unemployment rate of blacks was 1 1.8%, while that of whites was 4.7%, the former was more than twice as high as the latter.
Minors in at least 38 countries are engaged in slave labor. Of the 45 million people in the United States who can't afford medical insurance, 7 million are African-American, accounting for nearly one-fifth of the total African-American population and 77% higher than whites. An article in American News and World Report on March 29th, 2004 pointed out that the Declaration of Independence pointed out that all people are created equal, and the gap between whites and blacks is simply an insult to this "foundation of the country".
According to records, segregated education is common in American schools. One eighth of black students in the southern United States attend schools with 99% black students, and about one third of black students attend schools with more than 90% ethnic minorities. In the north, more than half of the black students attend the schools where most black and minority students attend.
Records show that racism is on the rise in American university campuses. Fascist slogans and white supremacist slogans, including threats with weapons and language, have been found in UC Berkeley and Diablo Valley Community College in California. At Little St. Ross College in California, the school newspaper published a column attacking Jews, which triggered a wave of protests. Chat rooms on the website are occupied by white supremacy people. At Dartmouth College, white girls auction "slaves" at fund-raising activities. At the University of Southern Mississippi, a group of white people shouted racist slogans after the American football game and attacked four black students. In the University of Michigan with only 55 black students, 5 1 black students dropped out of school after racial violence and harassment.
Records show that racial prejudice and paranoia in the United States have intensified social contradictions and increased hate crimes. According to the statistics of 1 16% law enforcement unit report released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on October 22nd, 2004, among the 7489 hate crimes in the United States in 2003, 3844 were related to racial hatred. Among them, there were 2,548 racial hate crimes against blacks, accounting for 5 1.4%, more than twice the total number of such crimes against all other races, and 3 150 blacks became victims. 62.3% of the criminals are white.
The Los Angeles Times reported on May 3, 2004 that in 2003, due to the "9. 1 1" incident and the Iraq war, there were10/9 hate incidents against Muslims in the United States, up 69% year-on-year. There were 22 1 hate incidents against Muslims in California, a year-on-year increase of nearly three times. The record points out that racial discrimination in the judicial field in the United States is commonplace. The proportion of people of color sentenced and imprisoned is significantly higher than that of whites. According to the report released by the US Department of Justice on June 5438+065438+ 10, 2004, colored people account for more than 70% of American prisoners.
By the end of 2003, among the 6.5438+0.4 million prisoners sentenced to more than 654.38+0 years in federal and state prisons in the United States, blacks accounted for 44%. For the same crime, the average sentence of a black man is six months longer than that of a white man, and he is three times more likely to be put into prison after being arrested, and it is more difficult for a black man to get a suspended sentence than a white man.
Records show that after the "911"incident, the United States openly restricted citizens' rights in the name of homeland security, and monitored citizens' every move by monitoring telephone calls, tracing websites visited, and monitoring the transfer of financial funds. Ethnic minorities, foreigners and immigrants became the main victims.
According to statistics, after the "9. 1 1" incident, a total of 32 million people in the United States have faced the problem of racial discrimination investigation. Among those discriminated against, African-Americans account for the most, accounting for 47%, followed by Latinos and Asians, and whites account for only 3%. In June 2004, the US Department of Homeland Security announced the repatriation of 1, 5728 1 immigrants, an increase of 8% over last year and a record high. The number of undocumented foreigners arrested also increased by 1 12%.
It is also reported that since last year, dozens of immigrants from Mexico or other countries have been arrested every day in cities in San Francisco, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Miami, S? o Paulo, Denver, Kansas and Portland, and forced to wear heavy electronic anklets like suspects. Treating illegal immigrants like criminals has become a national trend. The definitions of terrorists and illegal immigrants have become very vague.
The Status Quo of Racial Discrimination and Apartheid in America
Yang Yifan, a Boston correspondent of the International Herald Tribune, reported that global racism has not died out, even in the most developed country-the United States.
On August 23, 2003, Martin Luther King III, the son of Martin Luther King, told the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial where his father gave a speech that year, "I know that my father's influence far exceeds a dream." He said that 40 years later, his father's dream has not been realized, and there is still serious racial discrimination in the United States. He asked the US government to improve the social welfare system. This may also be the latest voice against racial discrimination.
The epitome of racial discrimination in America
In today's America, the old and the new coexist with racial discrimination. On the one hand, the old racist forces still exist. Although they are small in number, they can always make waves in American society. John levenson, a black graduate student at Boston University, told reporters that even in the middle schools and universities he attended, there were many shadows of racial discrimination.
He recalled that two years ago, he and his companions went to a club in the university to play. As soon as I entered the door, I felt that many white people cast contemptuous eyes. The waiter of the club came up and said rudely, "This is a private place, please leave you niggers." His companion told him that this is a club only for whites, and the boss has a strong Klan background.
The reporter himself had a similar experience in America. On the streets of Boston, journalists met with the same strange eyes and rejections. Although polite, it is extremely indifferent. Even at school, students can feel it
Peter Rogge, a scholar studying American history at Boston University, told reporters that historically, the United States has not formed an innate factor of racial discrimination. America is a country of immigrants. Most Americans have ancestors from all over the world. Many of them are Irish, German, Italian and Hispanic whites, while the proportion of blacks has reached 13%. In recent years, the number of Asian immigrants has also increased. However, there are still relatively strong racial discrimination forces in the United States. For this reason, Peter Rogge thinks it is necessary to find the reasons from the background of global racial discrimination. In the long historical process, due to the high level of productivity of white society, discrimination against colored people is essentially the rejection of backward society and different cultures. This situation has become a microcosm of global racial discrimination in the multi-ethnic society of the United States.
America: a black-and-white society
On the other hand, from the current point of view, racial discrimination in the United States has begun to appear in new fields, and traditional political conservative forces have also begun to intervene. Simple single racial discrimination has been replaced by cultural implicit discrimination. 1968 In February, the US Congress published a report entitled "Report of the National Advisory Committee on Civil Upheavals", which revealed in detail the widespread racial discrimination in American society and pointed out: "Our country is splitting into two societies, a black society and a white society-two separate and unequal societies."
1In February 1993, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the publication of the above report, a Washington-based foundation published another 350-page report, enumerating the widespread racial discrimination in the United States in the early 1990s, and drawing the conclusion that the inequality among races in the United States has not improved in the past 25 years, but has "further intensified".
American scholars have noticed a strange phenomenon. On the one hand, there is strong racial discrimination in the United States. On the other hand, any behavior in American society is worried about being branded with racial discrimination. A researcher told reporters that in short, everyone knows that racial discrimination is not good, but everyone will consciously or unconsciously commit racial discrimination. In such a strange circle, racial discrimination in the United States continues.
Peter Rogge gave the reporter an example. He said that in June, 1994 and 10, the National History Teaching Center (NCHS) of UCLA published a set of national history teaching standards for primary and secondary schools. The first unit of this standard describes the origin of the United States, which is contrary to the past practice of focusing on European civilization. It puts European civilization, African civilization and indigenous Indian civilization in the same position, and calls their experiences in the colonies "convergence", emphasizing that European immigrants are "latecomers" on the American continent. After the publication of this standard, it caused a strong rebound from American conservatives. Among them, it is precisely American conservative political and cultural workers represented by American Vice President Cheney who insist on advocating the theory of European civilization center. Their discrimination against other races is not simply reflected in the big white hat of the Klan, but in the field of American cultural survival, and even more in Bush's foreign policy today.