Ethnic minorities are at the bottom of American society. According to the US Census Bureau, the average annual income of white families in the United States is $50,622. In contrast, the average annual income of Hispanic families is only $36,278, while that of black families is only $30,940. The income of whites is two-thirds higher than that of blacks and 40% higher than that of Hispanics. In the United States, 75% of white families own their own houses, while the proportion of black families and Latino families is 46% and 48% respectively. (Note 50) The poverty rate of whites is 8.3%, while the poverty rate of blacks and Latinos is two to three times that of whites, reaching 24.9% and 2 1.8% respectively. (Note 5 1) Nearly15 Latinos can't get enough nutritious food, and 1/20 people often suffer from hunger. (Note 52) Blacks account for 42% of all homeless people in the United States. (Note 53) The proportion of people of color without medical insurance is much higher than that of whites. 32.7% of Latinos have no medical insurance, 19.6% of Africans have no medical insurance, while the proportion of whites is only 1 1.3%. (Note 54) In the southern region hit by the hurricane, the life of the poor and black people is even more difficult. The United Nations Human Rights Committee's review of the report on the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in the United States pointed out that when Hurricane Katrina hit the United States, the poor, especially African-Americans, were at a disadvantage in implementing the rescue and evacuation plan and continued to be at a disadvantage in the reconstruction plan. (Note 55)

Blacks and other ethnic minorities have long been discriminated against in employment and work. The unemployment rate of blacks is more than twice that of whites. According to the data released by the US Department of Labor on February 8, 2006, the unemployment rate of blacks in the United States was 8.6% and that of whites was 3.9% in June 2006. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission receives more than 500 complaints about racial discrimination every week, and the United States receives more than 26,000 complaints about racial discrimination every year. In fiscal year 2005, the Committee received 26,740 complaints about racial discrimination. A report published by an American policy and economic research institute in June 5438+February 65438+May 2006 said that biased policies and negative media reports restricted the development of American minority youth. White people are more likely to enter management than African-Americans and Latinos. In 2005, an African-American employee complained to Merrill Lynch & Co) bring a racial discrimination lawsuit to the federal court in Chicago. In 2006, 16 current and former black employees of the company were prepared to join the lawsuit, accusing the company of systematically and extensively discriminating against African-American brokers and interns in the country in terms of employment, promotion and salary. (Note 56) In June 2006, Tyson Foods, the largest meat processing company in the United States, was accused of racial discrimination by 13 African-American employees.

The educational gap between colored people and whites is widening. In the United States, more than half of ethnic minority men failed to graduate from high school, and 67.5% of Hispanics and 53% of African-Americans stopped receiving education after completing high school. (Note 58) White people are more likely to get a college degree or vocational and technical certificate than African Americans and Hispanics. (Note 59) In 2005, at least 30% of adult whites had bachelor's degrees, but only 65,438+07% of adult blacks and 65,438+02% of adult Hispanics had degrees. In fact, there is serious racial segregation in the field of education. According to the seminar on "Facing Inequality" held in the University of California on June 5438+ 10, 2006, in the Los Angeles school district, California, 67% of Hispanic children attend 90% to 100% non-white schools. High schools in Los Angeles are more racially divided. Beverly High School is 73% white, 8% Asian and 6% Hispanic. On the contrary, among the 4,940 students in ROSEWELT HS, 98.9% are Hispanic and 1% are black. The conditions of white schools and non-white schools are very different.

Racial discrimination in law enforcement and justice is deeply rooted. After the "9. 1 1" incident, Muslims in the United States have been plagued by discrimination and law enforcement. According to the Associated Press, on June 5438+065438+ 10, 2006, after attending a religious conference, six Muslim religious figures were going to return home from Minneapolis by American Airlines. After boarding the plane, a passenger handed a note to the flight attendants, who were taken off the plane, handcuffed and interrogated. Since the September 1 1 incident, four airlines have been accused of violating the federal anti-discrimination law. These airlines illegally carry passengers according to their ethnic or religious background. (Note 1) According to Reuters's June165438+1October 14 report, in most parts of Los Angeles, the proportion of African-American and Hispanic drivers stopped and searched by police is obviously higher than that of white drivers.

In judicial practice, blacks and ethnic minorities are often punished more severely than whites. According to the statistics of the National League of Cities, when the state court sentenced 12 crimes, black men were sentenced to longer sentences than white men. (Note 62) According to the report released by the U.S. Department of Justice on June 5438+065438+ 10, 2006, blacks accounted for 12. 1% of the U.S. population, but by the end of 2005, 40% of the prisoners in federal and state prisons in the United States were black and 20% were Latino. According to the report published by Human Rights Watch on February 1 2006, the proportion of black and Latino prisoners in the United States is 6.6 times and 2.5 times that of white prisoners, respectively. According to statistics, one out of every 65,438+02 black men is in prison, while only one out of every 65,438+000 white men is in prison. Poverty, lack of opportunities and racial discrimination in the criminal justice system are the reasons why the proportion of blacks in prison is much higher than that of whites. (Note 63)

Racial segregation and discrimination have led to an increase in hate crimes. In the past five years, the number of ultra-racist and neo-Nazi organizations in the United States has increased by 33%, from 762 in 2004 to 803 in 2005. At the same time, hate crimes are increasing. (Note 64) In 2005, there were 765,438+063 hate crimes in the United States, of which 54.7% were crimes related to racial prejudice. (Note 65) In 2006, there were 230 hate crimes in new york, an increase of nearly 8% over the previous year, among which anti-Asian cases more than doubled.

A joint survey conducted by CNN and Opinion Research in June 5438+February 2006 showed that 84% of black Americans and 66% of white Americans believed that racism was a serious problem in the United States. At present, there are different forms of racism against different groups in American society.

1 has institutionalized racism.

The existence of racial discrimination in the United States is an inevitable product of the development of institutionalized racism. Since President Truman, the American government has been committed to the legislation of black rights. By the time President Johnson came to power, racism was finally abolished in law. Therefore, in the United States today, although legal racial discrimination and apartheid have been abolished, institutionalized racism has not decreased.

The vast majority of blacks are deprived of the right to equal treatment with whites because of their skin color. Today, the view that "black people should be at the bottom of society" is not without market. Policymakers focus on changing the culture, behavior and morality of most blacks, rather than eliminating their poverty themselves.

That is to say, before making this policy, the American government has completely denied the black culture, behavior and morality, which determines that the American government's black policy can not get rid of the influence of racism.

2 Relevant policies laid the foundation for discrimination.

With the recession of American economy, the living conditions of colored people, especially the majority of blacks, are facing increasingly serious threats, racial conflicts are more intense and racism is more rampant. In the election campaign, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party were surprisingly United. Starting from their own interests, they all point their finger at colored people, especially blacks, and thus have issued a series of related policies.

First of all, it denies blacks the right to receive government welfare assistance and refuses to give them basic survival guarantee. 1996 passed the welfare bill, which stipulated a fixed number of years for blacks in need of government assistance (only five years in their lives), thus relieving them of the obligation of government departments to provide assistance.

Secondly, we should reduce the tax of "elite groups" (mainly wealthy whites) and implement economic measures with racist tendencies. Although the most basic benefits of most blacks have been drastically cut, many whites have received extra subsidies from the government.

Black performance provides an excuse for discrimination.

The existence of racism also has black people's own reasons, and many black people's own performances provide an excuse for the government to implement racial discrimination policies against them.

For a long time, many blacks have no jobs because of unequal educational opportunities. Some of them (especially some young people) often do some "cruel drug dealing" and imitate capitalist entrepreneurship in their own way. In black areas, predatory crimes can happen at any time.

In addition, there are some black people, especially some black women, who are used to living on government relief and are not enterprising.

For this reason, racists vilify blacks as "unemployed people parasitic on drugs" and "bloodthirsty militants lacking morality, courtesy and conscience". As a result, government decision makers found "evidence" for their "tough policy".

The history of the black struggle is still very short.

Martin Luther King's movement for black rights appeared 200 years after the founding of the United States. In this movement, a black leader said: Freedom can only be achieved by bullets. It can be seen that racial hatred is still very strong until 200 years after the founding of the United States. However, the bullet finally entered Martin Luther King. Therefore, if black Americans want to achieve real equality, they must continue to fight tenaciously.

In Atlanta, Martin Luther King's hometown, the hosts of two local black and white pop music stations want to use Martin Luther King's birthday in February this year to hold a joint black and white music party. As soon as this proposal came out, it received a warm response from the audience, and the radio hotline was almost blown up. But on the night of the party, more than 80% of the people present were black. This shows that although the apartheid system has been abolished in the United States for decades, most whites and blacks still choose to live in isolation from each other.