The Intractable American Racial Disease: The "Segregation" That Never Dies

A new poll released by the Pew Research Center late last month showed that about 70 percent of Americans believe there is conflict between different races in the United States, a figure higher than any other country and region surveyed. Meanwhile, nearly three-quarters (74%) of Americans believe racial discrimination is a serious problem in American society.

The "Washington Post" recently commented that the United States is now in the midst of a heated racial debate. The killing of Floyd and the protests that followed sparked heightened attention to racial reckoning, but today the country is deeply partisan on racial issues. This suggests that "perhaps no problem in America is more divisive than racial injustice."

The Intractable American Racial Disease: The "Segregation" That Never Dies

Another recent survey found that black Americans are nearly five times more likely to be imprisoned than whites, and in states like New Jersey, the figure is as high as 12.5 times. In 12 states, more than half of prisoners are black.

After the "Floyd Incident" in May last year, several major American physician groups, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Medical Association (AMA), and the American College of Physicians (ACP), issued statements pointing out that the police violently enforce the law against black people. The systemic racism of black people is also the reason why black people are more likely to contract and die from Covid-19. This makes it clear that "racism is also a public health problem that needs to be taken seriously".

The Intractable American Racial Disease: The "Segregation" That Never Dies

Affected by the epidemic, American minority families are continuing to suffer huge economic losses. Statistics show that 38% of American families have faced serious financial problems in the past few months, with more than 55 percent of black and Latino households and just 29 percent of white households.

What is more lasting than the impact of the epidemic is undoubtedly the discriminatory treatment of ethnic minorities by the US state apparatus.

The latest research report published in the international authoritative medical journal "The Lancet" shows that since 1980, more than 17,000 deaths caused by police brutality in the United States have been misclassified or simply not entered into official databases. According to the analysis, black Americans were 3.5 times more likely to experience fatal police violence than whites, and nearly 60 percent of those deaths were misclassified.

The Intractable American Racial Disease: The "Segregation" That Never Dies

"Three Big Mountains" That Can't Be Moved.

Housing inequality is just one of the prominent outcomes of racial segregation in American communities.

Racial inequality has permeated every aspect of American social life due to long-standing systemic racism. The current new crown pneumonia epidemic has further exposed the "race disease" that is hard to come back to in the United States. Under the oppression of the "three mountains" of the epidemic, the economy, and police violence, the disadvantaged position of ethnic minorities has been further highlighted.

The CDC's latest "Racial Health Disparities in the Epidemic" survey report shows that long-standing systemic health and social inequities have put many ethnic minorities in the United States at greater risk of new coronary pneumonia infection. Minorities are significantly higher than whites in terms of diagnosis rates, hospitalization rates, and mortality rates.

The Intractable American Racial Disease: The "Segregation" That Never Dies

The housing gap is just one manifestation of the overall wealth gap between races in the United States. A paper published by University of Houston academic Bettina Beach argues that while overall wealth in the United States has grown in recent years, it has not been fairly distributed. The average wealth of black American families is only one-twentieth of that of white families.

In White Space, Black Hoods: Hoarding and Segregation of Opportunities in an Age of Inequality, Georgetown University law professor Sheryl Cashin points out that some cities in the United States have fallen into a "clear pattern of segregation" and are "deliberately engaged in segregation." Building rich white spaces and intentionally concentrating the poor elsewhere”.

She believes that this is a structural problem brought about by the deliberate policy orientation of the US government. "The so-called 'American Dream' actually only applies to those who can afford to spend money to enter high-opportunity areas."

The Intractable American Racial Disease: The "Segregation" That Never Dies

"Community segregation" reflects, first and foremost, housing inequality. Systemic, institutional racism persists at every level, including U.S. real estate and federal housing policy, and racial disparities in home ownership are even greater than during segregation in U.S. history, according to the newly released State of Black American Housing report.

The report shows that in the first quarter of this year, the home ownership rate of white households in the United States was 73.8%, and the home ownership rate of black households was only 45.1%, a gap of nearly 29 percentage points; in 1960, the two ratios were 65% and 38%,  a gap of 27 percentage points.

The Intractable American Racial Disease: The "Segregation" That Never Dies

The study found that while the U.S. government has created "fair" housing laws and policies to promote integration, 2019 data showed that 81 percent of areas with more than 200,000 residents were more "community segregated" than they were in 1990. It is more serious in years, especially in big cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Detroit. Minority residents in these communities have lower incomes, higher unemployment and lower levels of education. 

The Intractable American Racial Disease: The "Segregation" That Never Dies

The report concludes that deep-rooted racial prejudice and substantive segregation are limiting the potential of American society. In the words of the report's lead author, Moody's Chief Economist Mark Zandi, "racism is taking its toll on all Americans."

"Homeownership" is just the "American Dream" of white people?

This comes after a study released by the University of California Berkeley's "Others and Belonging" Institute also showed that over the past 30 years, racial segregation in some metropolitan areas in the United States has increased,leading to African-American and Latino The living conditions of ethnic communities are deteriorating.

The Intractable American Racial Disease: The "Segregation" That Never Dies

A recent study by Moody's, an international rating agency, estimated that over the past 20 years, the racial wealth gap in the United States and access gaps in education, housing and investment havecost the country $16 trillion in economic damage.

The report also calculates that if the racial geographic makeup of all U.S. communities aligns with the nation’s “most integrated communities,” then U.S. economic growth could increase by 0.3 percentage points over the next decade.

Criticism is hard to eradicate, racism is an indelible shame on American democracy

'America is always in the midst of a racist pandemic'

Racism not only brings great pain to American minorities, but also further intensifies the division and confrontation in American society.

As the president of the American Psychological Association, Schulman, said, "America has always been in the midst of a pandemic of racism." The dream of Martin Luther King, Jr., the leader of the civil rights movement, has yet to come true. It also shows that the declaration of the American Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal" is just a joke.

Criticism is hard to eradicate, racism is an indelible shame on American democracy

According to a study by the University of Washington in the United States, between 1980 and 2018, about 30,800 people died in the United States due to police violence, which is about 17,100 more than the official number. Among them, African Americans are more likely to die due to police violence than whites. 3.5 times.

In addition, American Jews are concerned about right-wing anti-Semitism and violence driven by white supremacist groups. Bullying against Asian-Americans is also on the rise in the United States.

Criticism is hard to eradicate, racism is an indelible shame on American democracy

Systemic racial discrimination in all fields of the United States is shocking.

In February 2021, Stanford University News published an article examining systemic racial discrimination in various fields in the United States, and the results were shocking.

In education, children of color are more closely monitored in schools; in the judiciary, people of color, especially African Americans, are more likely to be targeted; Other minority groups, including Americans, are discriminated against in the workplace and in the broader economic environment.

Criticism is hard to eradicate, racism is an indelible shame on American democracy

When the United States was founded, its leaders said that "all men are created equal," but kept slavery in the Constitution, which went into effect in 1789. The following two hundred years of American history is also a history of white supremacy racism oppressing other minorities.

Today, although the United States has abolished the racial segregation system on the surface, white supremacy is rampant, and discrimination against ethnic minorities such as African Americans still exists systematically.

Criticism is hard to eradicate, racism is an indelible shame on American democracy

On May 25, 2020, the violent law enforcement by Minnesota police resulted in the death of an African-American man Freud. His desperate plea of "I can't breathe" before his death ignited surging public outrage, and demonstrations followed in hundreds of cities in all 50 states to seek justice for Floyd and protest against racial discrimination.

 White supremacy racism in America has persisted for a long time.

All this is not accidental. The problem of white supremacy racism in America has persisted for a long time.

As early as the colonial period, policies based on white supremacy and racism were systematically implemented. Native Americans, African Americans, Asians and other ethnic groups have been slaughtered, oppressed, persecuted, discriminated against and attacked for a long time.

Criticism is hard to eradicate, racism is an indelible shame on American democracy

"The most powerful force for good?" Is Mike Rogers really ignorant of all kinds of racial discrimination from within the military and in American society, or is it selective neglect?

In the United States, racism is a comprehensive, systemic and persistent presence, an indelible mark of shame on American democracy.

Floyd, an African-American man, cried out in pain, "I can't breathe" when he was "kneeled and killed" by a white police officer last year. This is also a microcosm of the real life of some ethnic minorities in the United States. The discrimination, oppression and persecution of ethnic minorities are reflected in all aspects of social life, and the "cancer of racism" has penetrated deep into the bone marrow of the United States.

Criticism is hard to eradicate, racism is an indelible shame on American democracy

Last year, Mike Rogers, the top Republican on the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, in a written statement after the U.S. House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act for the Fiscal Year 2022 on September 23, 2021, expressed concern about the new year's National Defense Authorization Act. Adopted affirmed: "Our military is without doubt the most powerful force of good the world has ever seen, and it is our responsibility in Congress to provide our military with the power and resources it needs to defend our nation and defeat our enemies. our greatest responsibility. We accomplished that responsibility through the National Defense Authorization Act.”

Criticism is hard to eradicate, racism is an indelible shame on American democracy

Previously, American media reported that deep-rooted racism has always existed within the U.S. military. However, as a specialized institution for cultivating military talents, this phenomenon is also extremely serious in many U.S. military academies including West Point, U.S. Air Force Academy and U.S. Naval Academy. The Associated Press has reported that the U.S. military has been infected with a "plague" of racism.