Racial equality still a dream in the US
WASHINGTON. July 31. KAZINFORM The protests sweeping the United States last weekend over the acquittal of George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator who was charged with the second-degree murder and manslaughter of 17-year-old African-American Trayvon Martin, is a bitter reminder that racial tensions are still strong four and half years after the country elected its first African-American president.
In Oakland, California, protesters burned flags, vandalized police cars and smashed shop windows.
"And when you think about why, in the African-American community at least, there's a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it's important to recognize that the African-American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that - that doesn't go away," President Barack Obama said, calling for calm.
"There are very few African-American men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me. And there are very few African-American men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happened to me, at least before I was a senator. There are very few African-Americans who haven't had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often," Obama added.
There is no doubt that the 2008 election of Obama as the first African-American president was a milestone toward racial equality.
There are other landmarks, too.
In the US capital, the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial is getting ready for the 50th anniversary of the famous March on Washington on Aug 28.
When I bought commemorative stamps in February that marked the 100th birthday of activist Rosa Parks, it occurred to me that the lives of African Americans are vastly different now.Yet some hard facts cannot mask the reality that African-Americans are still far from being fully equal in the US.
Every time I pass by the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Library in Washington D.C., the people lining up waiting for the shelter transport bus are almost all blacks.
According to official figures, the infant mortality rate for African-Americans is 2.4 times that of whites, and the maternal mortality rate is 3.3 times greater for the black population than for the white population.
The unemployment rate for blacks, more than 13 percent, is almost twice as high as that for whites. And a Pew Center survey shows that the median wealth of white households is many times that of black households. Besides, the US prisons house a disproportionately high number of black and Hispanic inmates.
The residents of the poorest neighborhoods are almost all blacks, and public schools where the majority of students are blacks have much higher dropout rates and poor academic records.
It is shameful that at the start of the 21st century, the words of King's "I have a Dream" speech still ring true 50 years on.
"When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned."
Therefore, the US should set its own house in order before trying to claim the moral high ground.
The author, based in Washington, is deputy editor of China Daily USA. chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com
Source: ChinaDaily