What are the aspects of racial discrimination in the United States?
Don’t just look at the tolerance and superficial harmony of the nation
Americans like to proudly say that the United States is a “melting pot of nations.” . This cannot be said to be bragging, because it is indeed based on facts. The United States is one of the three largest immigration countries in the world (the United States, Canada, and Australia), with hundreds of thousands of legal or illegal new immigrants from all over the world entering every year. There are many opportunities for survival and development in the United States. New immigrants of any nationality can survive in the United States as long as they are strong, not afraid of hardship, and work hard. If you have expertise, you will also find development opportunities. However, the U.S. economy has been in recession in the past two years, while China's development momentum is strong, and the U.S. has fewer development opportunities than China. The United States has many laws and regulations that strictly prohibit racial discrimination. For example, if a landlord refuses to rent a house to people of color, the tenants can sue in court; if companies, restaurants, hotels, and public entertainment venues discriminate against customers of different skin colors, they will be subject to legal sanctions, including fines, apologies, and Correct errors, etc. The American public will not tolerate the public spread of racial discrimination. Recently, the leader of the Democratic Party of the U.S. Senate has changed. The reason is that the former leader Lott said at a party celebrating the 100th birthday of the old Senator Thurmond: "If Thurmond became president in the 1948 election, the current situation of the United States would be Things will be better." Thurmond was a racist, and his only campaign platform was to insist on racial segregation. Lott's praise of Thurmond was tantamount to praising the apartheid policy, which angered the American public and led to widespread criticism and condemnation. President Bush and the Democratic Party leaders saw that the momentum was not good and were worried that the development would affect the election of the next president and members of Congress, so they put pressure on Lott and forced him to resign and step down. The author lives in New York and bumps into people of various ethnic groups every day. My neighbors include yellow, white, black and brown people, and we all live in peace and harmony. There are actually more employees of color than white people in offices such as the Post Office, Immigration Bureau, Internal Revenue Service, and Social Security Administration that we often come into contact with (because ordinary small-time employees in U.S. government agencies have stable jobs and good benefits, and people of color are regarded as " "Good job"; however, the salary level is lower than that of private companies and there are fewer opportunities for promotion, so white people do not like it very much). From the above, it can be said that the United States is a country of ethnic tolerance and harmony. On the surface, racial discrimination is not very serious. This is indeed different from the situation before Martin Luther King launched the civil rights movement in the 1960s. ?Invisible racial discrimination remains serious and deeply rooted. White supremacy is very stubborn among some Americans. The Southern Poverty Law Center, headquartered in Alabama, found through long-term follow-up investigations that there were 537 racial hate groups (such as the Ku Klux Klan) in the United States in the late 1990s, the vast majority of which hated black people. white extremist organization. In addition, there are quite a few people who look down on people of color in their hearts but do not take violent actions. For example, among my neighbors, there is an old white man who only talks and laughs with his white neighbors and never pays attention to his neighbors of color. ?
There are many types of invisible racial discrimination in the United States. There are mainly four types of things that Chinese people often encounter: The first type is "politically colored mirror". Some Americans have always been skeptical of the political credibility of people of color, especially Chinese. They believe that people who come to the United States from mainland China originally lived in "communist countries" and are politically "unreliable." Readers may still remember the "Li Wenhe incident" that shocked the world in 1999. Li Wenhe is a scientist born in Taiwan who works at Los Alamos Laboratory (nuclear weapons research institute) in the United States. Just because he is Chinese with black hair and yellow skin, he is suspected of being a "Beijing spy" and arrested. He was imprisoned, handcuffed and shackled, interrogated and imprisoned for a long time. In the end, no evidence was found. In order to maintain the face of the US judicial authorities, he was charged with "privately downloading confidential information", sentenced to a misdemeanor, and released with a fine. During that time, U.S. Congressman Cox published the infamous "Cox Report", slandering China for illegally stealing U.S. defense secrets, and nonsense that thousands of Chinese-owned companies in the United States were "gathering intelligence" for China. .
There is a mainstream media that is also complicit in this, adding fuel to the flames, slandering Chinese students as having the mission of "gathering intelligence" for China, and so on. Facts speak louder than words, the "Cox Report" went bankrupt in the face of the facts, and Cox himself was defeated and failed to be re-elected. The mainstream American media that spread rumors out of thin air had to admit its mistake and apologize after being criticized and condemned by Chinese Americans. Now that Sino-US relations have improved, political discrimination against ethnic Chinese has also eased. However, since the "9/11" incident, political discrimination against ethnic Arabs has increased day by day. ?
The second "invisible ceiling". In the United States, it is much more difficult for people of color to get promoted than white people, and the proportion of important positions and senior positions held by people of color is very low. Of course it is not impossible. For example, in the Bush team, Secretary of State Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice are both black-skinned. These rare individuals have become "evidence" that the United States proves that it has no racial discrimination. However, the vast majority of U.S. governments at all levels and leaders from all walks of life are white. The power in various fields such as politics, economy, military, and culture in the United States is in the hands of white people. This is an undeniable fact. In 1997, the famous "Li Liangchou Incident" occurred in the United States. Li Liangchou is a well-known human rights lawyer who is fair and capable. President Clinton nominated Lee to serve as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Department of Justice, but the U.S. Congress refused to approve the nomination because of his support for "affirmative action" that protects the rights of minorities. Clinton had no choice but to take advantage of the recess of Congress to appoint Lee as interim "Deputy Assistant Secretary" (this position does not require congressional approval). However, after Congress resumed session, it still refused to appoint Lee as "Assistant Secretary." If Chinese people want to hold important positions, there are three ways: first, Chinese people can start their own business, open a company, and appoint themselves; second, enter the technology, education, and academic fields, which mainly rely on knowledge and real skills, and racial discrimination is relatively light; third, actively Participate in politics, run for elected office, use your vote to speak out, and break through racial discrimination. ?
The third type is racial discrimination on campus. Campus violence in the United States is world-famous, but racial discrimination on campuses is also very serious. There are almost no children of recent Chinese immigrants who have not been bullied in school. The reasons are: Chinese children are small, weak and easily bullied; Chinese families teach their children to be humble, tolerant, obedient, and disciplined from an early age, and they do not belong to the "brave and aggressive" type; many Chinese students are excellent in both morals and academics. They are often praised in public by their teachers and are therefore "jealous". On campus, it is not only white children who are discriminated against against Chinese children, but also black children and Hispanic children who are members of the same ethnic minority. Children's thoughts are influenced by their parents, and racial discrimination on campus reflects the widespread and deep-rooted racial discrimination in American society. ?
Several incidents of discrimination against Chinese students have recently occurred at Lafayette High School in New York. On November 21, a Watson was robbed on campus, and the criminal student threatened him with a knife. A week later, another Watson was beaten by students of other races in the cafeteria. In early December, Watson Zheng Xiaoguo was surrounded by six African-American students, punched and kicked, leaving her covered with bruises. Zheng Xiaoguo is a good student from Hong Kong with excellent academic performance. She averaged 96.86 points in all subjects this year and was selected as the student representative to speak at the graduation ceremony. There was no reason why he was beaten by a group of people. It was just because he performed so well in all aspects that some naughty students were "angry". There are two main reasons why this school has such a bad school spirit: first, the social environment in the community is too bad; second, the school leaders tolerate unhealthy tendencies and the main leaders have racial discrimination. Watson students reported that after being bullied, complaining to the school was of no use. They often ignored right and wrong and just "hit each other fifty". Last year, the school's leaders inexplicably ordered several of the best Watson students to "graduate early." This year, they ordered an outstanding Watson student to "graduate early." The public reason was that these students had completed enough credits, and people familiar with the situation revealed , because the graduation rate of the school is too low, so several Watson students graduated early to make up for the graduation rate. ?
The fourth type is racial bias in law enforcement by the police and judicial departments. Some police officers in the United States are racially biased against ethnic minorities. When enforcing the law, they are lenient with white people and strict with ethnic minorities. They sometimes issue tickets indiscriminately without any basis and use violence indiscriminately.
Compared with blacks, there are two differences between Chinese and blacks: African Americans speak English and there is no language communication barrier with American police; Chinese generally have the weakness of being timid and afraid of getting into trouble, and tend to shrink back when encountering problems and dare not argue their case. . Therefore, sometimes the unreasonable police violence suffered by Chinese people is more serious than that of black people. In 1995, the murder of Huang Yongxin occurred in New York. Huang is a 17-year-old student. He was playing with several Asian students on the streets in the Sheepshead Bay area of ??Brooklyn. Someone reported to the police that they were holding pistols (actually some students were holding toy guns), but the police did not ask questions. Huang Yongxin came to arrest him indiscriminately and shot Huang Yongxin to death. The police officer who committed the crime said that it was because Huang Yongxin "resisted arrest" and obstructed the "execution of official duties." During the tug-of-war, he accidentally beat Huang to death. The autopsy showed that the bullet was shot from behind Huang's left ear. It was obvious that Huang was running away and the police shot him from behind. This autopsy result is consistent with the statements of other Asian students who escaped at the time. However, the judge and jury only accepted the police's statement and found the police officers guilty of "criminal negligence" and refused to prosecute. Huang Yongxin's family and the Chinese community have been fighting for a long time, but to no avail, and they have not yet sought justice. Huang Yongxin is not the only one who suffered an unjust death like this. Most black people are at the bottom of American society and "will never get over"?
In the United States, black people are in the worst situation among all ethnic groups. Poverty, unemployment and crime rates are all highest among blacks. According to statistics, the unemployment rate of black people is more than twice that of white people; black people account for 12% of the total population of the United States, but in prisons, black criminals account for 47%. One civil rights leader calculated that among adult black men, one in three has been or is currently in prison. Why is the situation so shocking? ?
1. Among all ethnic groups, blacks have the lowest income level. According to statistics in 2000, the average annual income of black Americans is only 62.9 times that of whites. "Poverty" is the root cause of many problems: if one cannot afford to live in a good community, but lives in a slum, not only the living conditions are poor, but the social environment and social atmosphere are also poor; with low income, not only the material life is not good, but the spiritual life is also vulgar and low; Low income affects the ability to educate children (financial resources and the energy parents devote to educating their children), etc. ?
2. Among all ethnic groups, blacks have the lowest educational and cultural levels. In the United States, in terms of the proportion of people with high school education or above, Asians are ranked first, Europeans are second (there is not much difference between the two), Hispanics are third, and Africans are fourth. If you receive less education and have low scientific and cultural levels, your abilities will be poor. If you cannot find a good job, your income will naturally be low and you will be poor. And if your family is poor, your children's education will be poor. As a result, poverty and lack of education cause and effect each other, forming a "vicious cycle." ?
It should also be added that black cultural traditions make them not pay attention to their children's education, and often let their children grow up naturally; at the same time, because they are poor, more families apply for social security subsidies, which encourages them to have more children. Children (one more child means one more subsidy), reach out to the government when something goes wrong, and children and adults are not as good as Hispanics, let alone Asians, in terms of hard work and hard work. 3. The proportion of black teenagers who do not go to school well and wander on the streets is much higher than that of other ethnic groups. This is the inevitable result of family poverty and lack of attention to education and supervision of children. 4. The environment of poor communities is not good. In addition, there are many teenagers wandering on the streets, and the social order and security situation are poor. Most of the areas where black poor people gather are areas where alcoholism, prostitution, drug trafficking, theft, robbery and serious criminal crimes are rampant. Major cities in the United States have such ghettos, in which the residents are mainly black, followed by Hispanics and other ethnic minorities. Most of the people living in such areas will remain poor for generations and will never be able to recover. There are also a few people who have received education beyond college through hard work, or have "made their mark" by relying on the natural sports and music talents of black people. Once they get ahead and become rich, they no longer live in slums and move to good neighborhoods. The ghettos are still the same. ?
How can slums be completely transformed? How to fundamentally improve the unequal status and conditions of blacks and other ethnic minorities is a fundamental issue in American society.
However, this big issue has not yet been put on the agenda of the US government and political parties, so of course there is no hope of resolution.
A Chinese artist wanted to go to the United States, and many fellow Chinese artists who had gone to the United States before him advised him, if you want to come to the United States to develop your art, please give up your delusions; if it is due to other factors , we welcome you to come. However, he came to the United States holding on to the idea of ????for art. He quickly felt that the advice of the "pioneers" was very reasonable, and he also slightly wanted to give up. Once, he met a colleague in the United States who was an art professor at a university. The professor saw some of his works and thought they were very good, so he urged him to stay in the United States for development. He expressed his worries: There is racial discrimination in the United States. The professor smiled and said: There may be a little discrimination, but as long as your work is good and has potential, there will never be a problem. Soon, the professor introduced him to a famous gallery manager. After seeing his works, the man immediately decided to open a room in the main exhibition hall to display a series of his works. He then proposed that his favorite series of works was another one, which meant a change. The manager said: Then I will give you another room to display at the same time! This stunned him and the professors who came with him. The professor said to him: This gallery is very picky. Famous professors from our university have only occupied a whole room to exhibit works in the attached hall here. It seems that you have fallen in love with the manager! That Chinese artist was Xu Bing, who later won the MacArthur Fellowship, the highest art award in the United States.
From this incident, I feel that racial discrimination in the United States is not as serious as we thought. If we pay more attention, it is not difficult to find that the United States has always been the most desirable place for people from all over the world to study or immigrate. destination, and most of the arrivals try their best to stay. This, in addition to economic reasons, at least shows that its racial discrimination is not more serious than that of other developed countries. This seems a bit unreasonable, because we know that the abolition of (racial) slavery in the United States has not been very long, and it is not easy to reach this situation today.
So, how did the United States reach such a prosperous situation today? I believe that in addition to political factors, factors of capitalist market economy are also indispensable. In the United States, as long as you are a businessman, you face equal competition. If you want to be in a favorable position in the competition or to survive, in a word, to make better profits than others, you have to ignore racial differences. You can't refuse to use a patented technology because the holder of it is black or another minority. Otherwise, you will quickly become bankrupt due to losing competition. This is why it is easy for top talents from all over the world to gain a foothold in the United States. On the contrary, if you have nothing to offer, and even becoming an American citizen will only increase the burden on the United States or "rob" you of the easiest jobs, then racial discrimination will inevitably occur.
In today's United States, in my opinion, market discrimination far exceeds racial discrimination.