Why there is no solution to the problem of racial discrimination in the United States

  Diao Daming

  Less than three months after the Freud incident that sparked national protests against racial discrimination, another black man was violently enforced by the police on social media. In the video, the police fired seven shots in the back of the black man Black who showed no signs of resisting the law. After the video was exposed, it quickly triggered intense protests and violent riots across the United States. The flames and the continuous smashing can not help but sigh the unsolvable and vicious circle of ethnic contradictions in the United States today.

  It must be noted that in the United States, African descent and other minorities have always encountered serious "systemic discrimination." Although several adjustments in history have given them some so-called equal rights, they are more of "political correctness" on paper. According to relevant research on the website of the Center for American Progress, compared with whites, ethnic minorities such as African Americans face “systemic obstacles” in employment, resulting in higher unemployment, fewer job opportunities, lower wages, and fewer The welfare and greater instability. In the past 40 years, the unemployment rate of African-American workers has always been twice that of whites. For example, in Wisconsin, where Black was shot, the unemployment rate of African Americans was as high as 13.9%, while that of whites was only 3.9%. In the context of the continuous spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the fact that African Americans and other minorities have lower medical benefit coverage, higher prevalence and higher fatalities, once again exposed the United States' entangled dilemma of discrimination.

  Deep-rooted "systematic discrimination" has invisibly exacerbated the stereotype of African-American groups in American society and has also largely condoned the violent law enforcement by white police officers. On the one hand, groups of African descent who have been trapped at the bottom for a long time are more likely to be treated harshly as the so-called “threat” to social stability. A report by the FBI at the end of 2019 showed that of all hate crime cases reported by law enforcement agencies in 2018, 57.5% involved racial and ethnic identity, and up to 46.9% were of African descent. On the other hand, this kind of potential psychological suggestion has continuously increased the insecurities of the African-American group and the distrust of the white police. Once encountered with law enforcement, they may not fully cooperate, which induces violent law enforcement and forms a heinous vicious circle. . Equally serious is that when these white policemen of African descent who cause injuries and deaths face legal sanctions, they are often “opened up” by white-dominated judicial procedures, which also greatly contributes to racial discrimination in law enforcement.

  The injustice of "black and white have different lives," and the resulting ethnic conflicts, have nailed American human rights to a pillar of shame time and time again. But the donkey and elephant parties have always taken what they need, and have never really responded to their demands and solved problems. After the Freud incident, there were endless calls for reforming the police's law enforcement power. The Democratic Party put forward a more radical reform plan in Congress for the purpose of suppressing the Republican Party with ethnic issues, and the Republican Party sought the support of the police community. And refused to adopt policy opinions. So we have seen that in the past three months, politicians of the two parties have not made any substantive efforts other than attacking each other, let alone made any meaningful changes to the reality. Even as they enter the election cycle, they hope to some extent that the relevant protests will continue so that they can win votes from relevant groups. In a sense, in the eyes of politicians of the two parties, what they expect is never a state of "union", but to satisfy their own political agenda through different degrees of "focus".

  "Three months ago, the knees choked the American throat; three months later, the gunfire pierced the soul of the United States!" The inaction of the political elites, even taking advantage of the situation, the inferior national governance system and level constituted the United States. The problem of racial discrimination is a systemic cause that has been historically unsolvable. The torn America is slipping into a deeper tear, but politicians have long lost the courage and ability to face up to and solve these problems.

  (The author is a researcher at the National Institute of Development and Strategy, Renmin University of China)