IV. On racial discrimination
Forty years have elapsed since late civil rights leader Martin Luther King
made the famous speech "I Have a Dream," yet the equal rights pursued by
American blacks and minority ethnic groups remained an unattainable dream today.
Racial discrimination in the US has a long history with age-old malpractice.
It has permeated into every aspects of society. According to an investigative
report released by the UN, black and colored people received twice or three
times more severe penalties than white people for the crimes of the same kind;
the number of black people who received death penalty for killing white people
was four times that of the white people for killing black people. In state
prisons nationwide, about 47 per cent of the inmates were black people, and 16
per cent were people of Latin American ancestry. Black people accounted for 13
per cent of the total US population, yet 35 per cent of the people arrested for
drug abuse crimes were black and 53 per cent of the people that were convicted
for drug abuse crimes were black.
At present, more than 750,000 black inmates were in US jails, or over 35 per
cent of the total number of inmates in the country; approximately 2 million
black people were disciplined or put under various forms of surveillance; 22 per
cent of black males in the 30-34 age group had jail records, while the white
inmates only make up 3 per cent; 36 of 1,000 black females have possibilities of
being jailed in their lives, while only five of 1,000 white females have such a
possibility.
The poverty rate and joblessness rate of the US black people remained high.
According to statistics of the US Department of Labour, the white people's
unemployment rate in the US was 5.2 per cent in November 2003, while the rate
was as high as 10.2 per cent for the black people, almost twice that of the
white people (Employment Status of the Civilian Population by Race, Sex, and
Age, www.bls.gov/news.release/empgit.to2.htm, 05/12/2003).
According to statistics of the US Census Bureau, poverty rate among the black
people reached 24.1 per cent in 2002, up 1.4 percentage points over the 22.7 per
cent rate in the previous year; 20.2 per cent of the blacks were without health
insurance; average annual income of median black families was 40 per cent less
than the ordinary median US families (See USA Today on October 3, 2003).
Racial discrimination exists on the US real estate market, too. In 2002, the
US federal government received a total of 25,246 discrimination accusations on
housing market, 72 per cent of which were from the families of black people,
disabled people or those families with children, according to a report released
by the National Fair Housing Alliance in April 2003. Discrimination over the
birth place nationality of house purchasers rose from 10 per cent in 2001 to 12
per cent in 2002 (See the Sun newspaper, USA on August 17, 2003). Black people
usually spend more money than white people on housing purchase, but their houses
are not as good as those of white people and they have to accept loans with
higher interests. The market value of houses bought by black people with same
amount of money is only 82 per cent of those of white people, and houses with
high mortgage interest rate in black people communities are five times more than
those in white people communities, the Sun newspaper quoted the US Department of
Housing and Urban Development as saying in on July 3, 2003.
Apartheid recurs at school. More than one third of American students of
African origin are studying in schools where over 90 per cent of students are
non-white people, according to an investigation made by Harvard University in
2004. Since 1988, many schools abandoned the compulsory racial integration in
class due to a series of court verdicts and changes in federal policies.
According to a verdict passed in 1991 by the Supreme Court, the resumption of
community schools was allowed and it was no longer mandatory to carry black
students from other communities by schoolbus, which led to the disappearance of
black students in white people's schools. Meanwhile, wealthy white people in
some southern areas withdrew from publicly owned school systems and sent their
kids to private schools where most students were white. Racial differentiation
in US middle and elementary schools is serious, noted a commentary of the New
York Times on January 21, 2003. Those black students in schools where most are
white students often feel unwelcome, discriminated or even scared (The New York
Times on January 21, 2003).
Less proportion of coloured races can go to universities
than white people. According to a report issued by the America Council on
Education in October 2003, 40 per cent of black people and 34 per cent of
Hispanic-Americans of the age group from 18 to 24 can go to university, while 46
per cent of white people can go to university. www.accnet.edu/news/press_release/2003/10october/minority_report.cfm
)
According to the census result in March 2003, the income of black people with
bachelor degree was 24.5 per cent lower than white people with same degree, that
of black people with master degree 21.2 per cent lower than white people with
same degree, and that of black people with doctoral degree 28.1 per cent lower
than white people (See USA Today on September 9, 2003).
The US discrimination toward immigrants tends to become serious. After the
September 11 incident, the US congress adopted the anti-terrorism act containing
items infringing on human rights. The act permits the arrest of immigrants with
indefinite duration, checks on all secret files, inspection in public and
private occasions, wiretapping of phone conversations and secret investigations.
In June 2003, US Prosecutor-General Glenn Fine revealed in his investigative
report that after the September 11 incident, US authorities detained 762 foreign
immigrants for an average of about three months in excuse of violation of
immigrant law, but later investigation showed they had nothing to do with the
September 11 incident (See Washington Post on June 3, 2003).
In the Operation Landmark launched in Chicago from December 2002 to May 2003,
the backgrounds of some staff working in public places such as airports and
high-rises were surveyed secretly, with some immigrants being detained and
deported without criminal acts, and the government refused to publicize any
details of this special policy toward immigrants and information about the
detainment and deportation of immigrants. According to the report, this kind of
"secret policing" activity in excuse of national security infringed on the civil
rights and freedom of millions of immigrants in the United States (See Los
Angeles Times on May 29, 2003).
Another report shows that 1,200 immigrants were detained in the United States
with no indictment, and at least 484 people are still in custody. To date, the
US Government still refuses to reveal the identity of these people (See a report
by Britain's Independent newspaper on June 26, 2003).
Immigrant children are maltreated. According to a report
from the Amnesty International, at least 5,000 children going to the United
States to find relatives, or avoid abuses and mistreatment, wars and recruiting
by domestic rebels were put into custody in the United States. These children
were jailed together with adult inmates, and were abused in ways of frisk by
being unclothed, handcuffed and flogged. These children aged 1 to 10 years from
all over the world were often imprisoned for months, or even for years. A child
jailed in a detention centre in Pennsylvania was beaten up for minor faults such
as saying "Can I use the toilet" instead of "May I use the toilet." Staffs in a
detention house in Texas will take back blankets and mattress and switch off
air-conditioners just because children make faults (Reuters dispatch from Miami
on June 18, 2003). The United States reportedly jailed a number of prisoners
regarded as illegal fighters, three of whom were 13 to 15 years of age (See
Britain's Guardian newspaper on April 24, 2003).
