China News Agency, Beijing, July 15th, Question: American ethnic minorities still "can't breathe" Why is it difficult to eliminate "soul stains"?

　　China News Agency reporter Zhang Su

　　The death of Floyd, an African-American man in police brutality two years ago, has shown the world that systemic racism is a "stain on the soul" of the United States.

A few days ago, the tragic death of an African-American man Walker has become another hard evidence of the dire situation of ethnic minorities in the United States.

　　A number of scholars in the field of human rights pointed out that the ethnic minorities in the United States are "breatheless" under the pressure of systemic racism, and the deep-rooted institutional obstacles make it difficult to remove the "soul stain" of the United States.

　　Minorities suffer from discrimination

　　Walker was chased by several police officers on suspicion of traffic violations, and eventually died with more than 60 shots in the body.

Attorneys representing Walker said there was no evidence yet that Walker fired at police and that Walker escaped unarmed.

Derek Johnson, president of the NAACP, called Walker's death "a murder" and said that "things like this don't happen to white Americans."

　　Although the Floyd incident once triggered a wave of protests and reflections across the United States, incidents of police violence against ethnic minorities in the United States are still emerging.

Statistics show that since 2020, African Americans have accounted for more than 22% of the deaths caused by police enforcement in the United States.

Another civil society group estimates that African-Americans are "almost three times as likely as whites" to be killed by police violence.

　　"The sad and angry slogans like 'I can't breathe' and 'Black Lives Matter' resounding in the sky are a strong indictment of the long-term, widespread and systematic racial discrimination in the United States." Chang Jian, director of the Center for Human Rights Research at Nankai University, said that the United States has Discrimination, oppression, and persecution of ethnic minorities are not only reflected in violent law enforcement, but also in all aspects of social life such as medical care, education, and employment.

　　Report shows that from March 19, 2020 to September 30, 2021, "Stop Hating Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders" received a total of 10,370 reports of racist attacks against Asian Americans; Council on American-Islamic Relations released report More complaints about bullying and anti-Muslim-related remarks are received every year; during the COVID-19 pandemic, Indians struggled with disease and poverty but were systematically ignored, and Latinos were at twice the risk of infection as whites. times...

　　Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said recently that "white supremacy" and "racial substitution theory" are rampant in the United States, and systemic and pervasive racial discrimination has intensified. Moreover, "the United States has been unable to take effective measures to change systemic racial discrimination."

　　How difficult is it to solve the racial problem?

　　"Structural racial discrimination has become an abscess in the United States," according to some American media.

In the eyes of the outside world, the "sick spot" lies first and foremost in the US government itself.

　　"In the century after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the U.S. government has mostly approved or acquiesced in a large number of atrocities against Indians and other indigenous people." Tian Li, a researcher at the Human Rights Research Center of Shandong University, said that the "road to the west" of the United States is The "road of blood and tears" of the Indians, until now, the US government still lacks the courage to face and admit the mistakes it has made, and it has not completely ended systemic racial discrimination.

　　Mao Junxiang, executive director of the Human Rights Research Center of Central South University, said that the social elites in the United States and the West have controlled the production and dissemination of public discourse, intensified racism in the ideological field, and provided a conceptual basis for racism to infiltrate the entire social and cultural structure.

　　Looking further, the reason why the United States cannot effectively solve the racial problems it faces is also due to its deep-rooted institutional obstacles.

Among them, there are not only irreconcilable normative conflicts between US domestic law and international law, but also the strong rejection of incompatible treaty norms by the inherent American culture.

　　For example, the Supreme Court of the United States has explicitly rejected the comprehensive elimination of racial discrimination proposed by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and the United States has also refused to accept the supervision of the international community on the grounds that its judicial sovereignty is an inalienable sovereign power.

"The United States is unwilling or unable to fulfill its key commitments under international human rights treaties." Tian Li analyzed that the United States does not want to remove these institutional obstacles at all.

　　The United States should walk in the same direction with the development of the international human rights cause

　　Just as the domestic human rights situation continues to deteriorate, the United States is keen to intervene in other countries under the guise of "human rights", and even create human rights disasters in other countries in the name of human rights.

In this regard, many countries condemned the United States as "the biggest destroyer of the world's human rights cause" at the UN Human Rights Council meeting and urged it to solve its own serious human rights problems.

　　A few days ago, nearly 30 experts and scholars from China, the United States, Germany, South Africa and other countries discussed and analyzed "the roots and influence of structural racism in the United States and the West", and proposed "strengthening solidarity and cooperation to jointly oppose new racism".

Last year, the UN Human Rights Council also passed a resolution to combat systemic racism collectively submitted by African countries, which clearly "establishes an international independent expert mechanism". Some commentators believe that this will bring new impetus to the world's anti-racism cause.

　　Chang Jian and other interviewed scholars said that the United States should face up to its own systemic racism, avoid repeated human rights tragedies, give up the hypocrisy and domineering of using human rights as a tool to suppress other countries, and move in the same direction with the development of the international human rights cause.

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