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The Beijing-based China Society for Human Rights Studies released a report on July 26, analyzing the chronic and rampant racial discrimination in the United States and its failure to rectify it. The Deep-Rooted Racial Discrimination in the U.S. Highlights Its Hypocrisy on Human Rights shines a light on discrimination against minorities in employment, politics, the economy, culture and social life, and concludes that it shows the hypocrisy in the U.S.-style advocacy of human rights. This is an abridged version of the report:
According to the 2010 United States Census, the population of the United States was 308 million. Whites formed 72.4 percent of it, including 63.7 percent non-Hispanic whites, who are deemed to be the majority racial group in the U.S.; African Americans were 12.6 percent; Asians 4.8 percent; Native Americans 1.1 percent; other races, 6.2 percent; and mixed races, 2.9 percent.
The minorities numbered 112 million, including white Hispanics and Latino Americans. The European whites fundamentally control the state power and racial discrimination in the U.S. is in essence the discrimination of the European whites against all other racial minorities.
The UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination requires all signatory states to prohibit and eliminate racial discrimination in all forms, and to guarantee everyone equality before the law, civil rights, political rights, and economic, social and cultural rights without distinction on the ground of race, color, or national or ethnic origin.
However, the U.S., a signatory to the convention, has failed to meet the requirement. In the U.S., racial discrimination is found in every aspect of people’s lives, particularly in law enforcement, the judiciary, the economy and society.
i. Discrimination in law enforcement and the judiciary
Equality before the law is a basic principle in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was issued by the UN in 1948; it is also recognized in the U.S. political philosophy and legal system. In reality, however, many practices of U.S. law enforcement and the judiciary run counter to this principle, with racial discrimination worsening in certain areas and the basic human rights of racial minorities willfully violated.
One of the most visible of these is the frequent shooting and killing of African Americans by the police in acts of abuse of power. U.S. federal government statistics show that young African American males are 21 times more likely to be shot and killed by police than young white males. For African American males between 15 and 19, the chance of getting shot and killed by police is 31.17 per million, while for white males of the same age group it is 1.47 per million. A National Broadcasting Company poll in 2016 found 77 percent of the respondents confi rming the existence of racial discrimination against African Americans, and 52 percent calling it a very serious problem.
ii. Growing hate crimes
The number of racial hate groups is growing. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there were 457 hate groups in 1999, 602 in 2000, and 1,000 by 2010. Their members were present at the white supremacist demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.
The number of racial hate crimes remains high. According to the FBI yearly statistics for hate crimes, an annual average of 6,000 hate crimes were reported from 2010 to 2015. About 60 percent of such crimes involved racial discrimination and 20 percent involved religious discrimination.
Latimes.com reported on November 13, 2018 that according to a report released by the FBI, hate crimes in the U.S. rose by more than 17 percent in 2017—the biggest annual increase since 2001. Among the 7,175 documented hate crimes in 2017, about 60 percent were motivated by racial discrimination and close to 50 percent of the victims were African Americans.
iii. Increasing societal breakdown
There are widely disparate views on racial discrimination in U.S. society. A Public Religion Research Institute study in 2016 showed that 64 percent of African American respondents complained about police abuse of power in their communities, while only 17 percent of white respondents shared this view. About 83 percent of white people had confi dence in law enforcement by the police, while only 48 percent of African Americans held the same view.
Whites and African Americans held completely different views on the police killing of African Americans. About 65 percent of white people and 15 percent of African Americans thought such incidents were unrelated individual cases, but as many as 81 percent of African Americans believed that such incidents were frequent in the U.S.
Racial discrimination, deeply rooted in the history and realities of the United States, is a structural obstacle to the realization of equal rights and status for racial minorities, and also a profound cause of societal breakdown in the country.
For all its self-styled positioning as a defender of human rights, the United States has neither the will nor the ability to solve the severe racial discrimination on its own territory. This exposes its institutional and structural defects and the hypocrisy of its discourse on human rights.
The status of race relations in the U.S. is determined by the country’s political structure, historical traditions and ideology. Without their reform, there can be no way to break the impasse in racial discrimination, end the resulting vicious circle in race relations and protect the rights of minorities.
According to the 2010 United States Census, the population of the United States was 308 million. Whites formed 72.4 percent of it, including 63.7 percent non-Hispanic whites, who are deemed to be the majority racial group in the U.S.; African Americans were 12.6 percent; Asians 4.8 percent; Native Americans 1.1 percent; other races, 6.2 percent; and mixed races, 2.9 percent.
The minorities numbered 112 million, including white Hispanics and Latino Americans. The European whites fundamentally control the state power and racial discrimination in the U.S. is in essence the discrimination of the European whites against all other racial minorities.
I. Forms of Racial Discrimination
The UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination requires all signatory states to prohibit and eliminate racial discrimination in all forms, and to guarantee everyone equality before the law, civil rights, political rights, and economic, social and cultural rights without distinction on the ground of race, color, or national or ethnic origin.
However, the U.S., a signatory to the convention, has failed to meet the requirement. In the U.S., racial discrimination is found in every aspect of people’s lives, particularly in law enforcement, the judiciary, the economy and society.
i. Discrimination in law enforcement and the judiciary
Equality before the law is a basic principle in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was issued by the UN in 1948; it is also recognized in the U.S. political philosophy and legal system. In reality, however, many practices of U.S. law enforcement and the judiciary run counter to this principle, with racial discrimination worsening in certain areas and the basic human rights of racial minorities willfully violated.
One of the most visible of these is the frequent shooting and killing of African Americans by the police in acts of abuse of power. U.S. federal government statistics show that young African American males are 21 times more likely to be shot and killed by police than young white males. For African American males between 15 and 19, the chance of getting shot and killed by police is 31.17 per million, while for white males of the same age group it is 1.47 per million. A National Broadcasting Company poll in 2016 found 77 percent of the respondents confi rming the existence of racial discrimination against African Americans, and 52 percent calling it a very serious problem.
ii. Growing hate crimes
The number of racial hate groups is growing. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there were 457 hate groups in 1999, 602 in 2000, and 1,000 by 2010. Their members were present at the white supremacist demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.
The number of racial hate crimes remains high. According to the FBI yearly statistics for hate crimes, an annual average of 6,000 hate crimes were reported from 2010 to 2015. About 60 percent of such crimes involved racial discrimination and 20 percent involved religious discrimination.
Latimes.com reported on November 13, 2018 that according to a report released by the FBI, hate crimes in the U.S. rose by more than 17 percent in 2017—the biggest annual increase since 2001. Among the 7,175 documented hate crimes in 2017, about 60 percent were motivated by racial discrimination and close to 50 percent of the victims were African Americans.
iii. Increasing societal breakdown
There are widely disparate views on racial discrimination in U.S. society. A Public Religion Research Institute study in 2016 showed that 64 percent of African American respondents complained about police abuse of power in their communities, while only 17 percent of white respondents shared this view. About 83 percent of white people had confi dence in law enforcement by the police, while only 48 percent of African Americans held the same view.
Whites and African Americans held completely different views on the police killing of African Americans. About 65 percent of white people and 15 percent of African Americans thought such incidents were unrelated individual cases, but as many as 81 percent of African Americans believed that such incidents were frequent in the U.S.
III. Systemic Racial Problems
Racial discrimination, deeply rooted in the history and realities of the United States, is a structural obstacle to the realization of equal rights and status for racial minorities, and also a profound cause of societal breakdown in the country.
For all its self-styled positioning as a defender of human rights, the United States has neither the will nor the ability to solve the severe racial discrimination on its own territory. This exposes its institutional and structural defects and the hypocrisy of its discourse on human rights.
The status of race relations in the U.S. is determined by the country’s political structure, historical traditions and ideology. Without their reform, there can be no way to break the impasse in racial discrimination, end the resulting vicious circle in race relations and protect the rights of minorities.