Racial inequality a sting in American society
By Zhang Mengxu,
People’s Daily
Roughly speaking, the
best-case scenario for the past 30 years occurred when blacks had about
one-sixth the median wealth of whites in 1998, said a report recently released
by US think tank Center for American Progress.
The black-white wealth
gap has not recovered from the Great Recession in 2007, the report said.
Although black wealth increased at a faster rate than white wealth in 2016,
blacks still owned less than 10 percent of whites’ wealth at the median.
For a variety of
reasons, African Americans are more vulnerable to economic insecurity and
therefore are in greater need of wealth. They have less access to stable jobs,
are more likely to be unemployed than whites, and are particularly less likely
to owe money on a mortgage or home equity line of credit. In addition, they are
more likely to own costlier debt than whites.
Moreover, the
disparities between white and black Americans can nearly always be traced back
to policies that either implicitly or explicitly discriminate against black
Americans, the report pointed out.
According to the US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black mothers and children die at
disproportionately higher rates than their white counterparts, regardless of
their income levels.
Researchers have
suggested that racism—which has produced segregated neighborhoods with fewer
hospitals, higher rates of chronic illnesses, and unequal access to health
care—is the main culprit.
At present, American
society is seeing increasing contradictions and
confrontations between different ethnic groups. According to data from the
Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San
Bernardino, hate crimes in 30 cities in the US surged by 10% in 2018. Racial
hatred has already led to several mass shootings in recent months.
This has generated a deep sense of unease for American society.
According to a report
released this year by the US Southern Poverty Law Center, the total number of
registered hate groups in the US increased to 1,020 in 2018, a 30 percent jump
from 2014, and the number of white nationalist groups surged by 50%.
US Census Bureau
also pointed out that white Americans were projected to fall below half the
population and lose their majority status. It intensified fears and
frustrations of the society so much that various white supremacist
and white nationalist groups have recently sprung up. At least
three American states have elected governors holding white supremacist views
Racial inequality is a
chronic disease of American society. White supremacy,
instigation of racial discrimination and hate speech have long been around in
the US, according to the report of the 93rd Session of the United Nations Committee
on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and a report by a UN special
rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia
and related intolerance, based on the resolutions of the UN General Assembly.
Gerald Early, director
of the Department of African-American Studies at Washington University in St.
Louis, told People’s Daily that the long-standing existence of racial issues in
American society reveals the incapability of the American system.
He explained that
although apartheid and discrimination were abolished, the racial boundaries
are still lingering in people’s minds. In many cities, there are
so-called white communities and African-American communities. The latter are
often full of dilapidated houses, and their local governments
always can’t afford to build quality public schools and hospitals due to
limited tax bases. This has become a vicious circle.
Besides, the US
political world is also experiencing an unprecedented division.
It has lost the ability to reach and implement consensus on major issues, let
alone breaking the vicious circle.
A senior researcher at
the Hudson Institute believes that the endless racial discrimination and rising
hate crimes have to some extent reflected that democracy is in crisis, and
division has become a prominent feature of American politics.
In recent decades, the
US congressional legislation has delegated broad powers to administrative
agencies, while the Congress simply decides whether or not to pass the
legislation by voting. The administrative agencies have been manipulated by
interest groups. The laws they passed were often affected by interest groups
and considered “bad” in the eyes of the public.
As the views of the
so-called elite could better influence the national policy and the demands
of the average Joes are often neglected because of bureaucracy, the voice
of anger has eventually evolved into violence and even
discrimination.
Racial inequality a sting in American society
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