Author: Guan Guoping
Two years ago, on May 25, the life of 46-year-old African-American George Floyd was forever fixed in this day by the violent law enforcement of the white American police.
html The "kneeling and killing" scene at 09 minutes and 29 seconds caused anger to sweep across the United States and the world like a wave, triggering sharp questioning and deep reflection on the systemic human rights issues in the United States.On May 14 this year, in an African-American community supermarket in Buffalo, New York, an 18-year-old white gunman, under the spell of "white supremacy," targeted African-Americans and pulled the trigger. , causing 10 deaths and 3 injuries.
The sound of gunshots once again shattered the illusion that "everyone enjoys inalienable freedom" and shattered the American illusion that "racism will gradually disappear as the younger generation grows up."
BuffaloThe bloody gunfire intertwined with Floyd's "I can't breathe" cry of the times... People are full of anger and heartache, but what can they do?
Looking back on the past two years, we can see through the 246-year history of the United States, and the reality and reality, appearance and interior of American human rights. After one historical storm after another, the American human rights pile on the quicksand has long since collapsed and revealed its original shape.
On May 25, 2021, people participated in a vigil in memory of Floyd in New York, USA. That day was the first anniversary of the death of African American George Floyd by a white Minnesota police officer who "kneeled on his neck" during law enforcement. Memorial services were held in many places in the United States. Xinhua News Agency issued
Racial discrimination: "Change" failed to bring about change
"Life is so hard, but I am afraid of death, because I don't know what is beyond the dome. Although I have been waiting for a long, long time, I know "A change is coming." "A change is coming," the iconic song of the American civil rights movement, was played at Floyd's funeral.
Change is the main theme of reflection on the Floyd case.
In the general election, Biden once took to the streets to talk to African Americans and vowed that he would "heal" the United States starting from January 20, 2021. Is the
change really coming? Healing, has the injury healed?
In June 2021, Xiao Wan, the police officer involved in the Floyd case, was sentenced to 22 years and 6 months in prison. He is known as "one of the longest sentences ever given to a police officer."
The perpetrator of the case seemed to have been punished, and he gave an explanation to the angry people. However, Americans, who have been numbed by too many similar tragedies, are no longer able to cheer. 98% of the victims who were prosecuted for homicide by police officers were not as "lucky" as the "special case" in Floyd's case.
As some comments pointed out, for Freud personally, this is a delayed justice, but it is more like a lonely victory: there is little precedent, and it is even harder to say that there will be a follow-up. This judgment is not unfounded.
Biden had set the first anniversary of Floyd's death as the deadline for passing the "George Floyd Law Enforcement Justice Act" involving police reform, but until today, the bill has still made little progress, and the police system reform Still a long way off. In contrast, in the past two years, dozens of states across the United States that support the Republican Party or tend to support the Republican Party have passed nearly a hundred laws at the local level to restrict the activities of "Black Lives Matter" and other protesters. Justice in the
case did not bring about systemic improvements. Racial discrimination in the United States is intertwined with many other issues such as social inequality, gun violence, law enforcement violence, and the gap between rich and poor. They are both the continuation of historical context and the entanglement of practical interests.
Today’s United States is built on extremely poor domestic race relations. Since the founding of the country, the necks of ethnic minorities in the United States have been pressed with the knees of white people. The genocide of Indians, the enslavement and segregation of blacks, the anti-Chinese movement and anti-Semitism, and the various rejections of Hispanic immigrants in the United States are enough to reflect the deep white-centered hierarchical structure of the United States. Racial discrimination is like Gangrene of the bone. For example, after the American Civil War ended in 1865, Congress declared the abolition of slavery through the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, but it was not until 100 years later that African Americans could sit on the same bus as white people.
In 2008, Obama became the first African-American president in the history of the United States. It was once considered to mark the United States entering the era of "color blindness" - when different races and ethnicities truly live equally, and race is no longer a factor that affects an individual's chance of survival. However, the harsh reality shattered people's innocence time and time again. When commenting on the Floyd case, Obama had to admit: "For millions of Americans, being treated differently because of race has become a sad, painful and infuriating normal."
html On May 12, in Times Square, New York, the United States, news about the victims of the new crown was played on the electronic screen. U.S. President Biden issued a statement on the White House website that day: "Today, we commemorate a tragic milestone: 1 million Americans have died from COVID-19." Xinhua News Agency This normality is reflected in Floyd's struggle to survive. on the trajectory of life. The "Washington Post " has launched a series of reports, starting with Floyd's family history, and telling how persistent inequalities in housing, education, health care, criminal justice and policing shaped his life. Floyd's dreams spiraled from childhood as a Supreme Court justice to professional athlete, truck driver, and finally just the desire to survive in a new city. In the meantime, there are sports, hip-hop, imprisonment, drugs, unemployment...
Freud's experience is not an individual case, but a microcosm of the experience of African Americans and other ethnic minorities in the United States.
In the past two years, changes for the better have not come, and the negative changes are worrying. The "virus" of deep-rooted racism in the United States has spread together with the new coronavirus. Anti-Asian hate crimes have occurred frequently. Discrimination against the Muslim community has continued unabated. The racial persecution of indigenous residents continues. The racial economic gap and inequality are growing. intensified. Along with this, white supremacy has become increasingly active.
The 10-year U.S. census data shows that white people, who make up the majority of the U.S. population, will shrink in population for the first time in 2020. Over the past 50 years, the proportion of ethnic minority populations in the United States has continued to increase, coupled with deteriorating economic conditions and a crisis of cultural identity, which have triggered anxiety and restlessness among white supremacists. They spread the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory (claiming that an elite group is seeking to replace native American whites with immigrants from Asia, Africa and Latin America), brewing ethnic conflicts and intensifying racial contradictions, leading to an increase in systemic racial human rights problems in the United States.
The "Washington Post" recently published an article that concluded that in the months after Floyd's death, the cry of "Black Lives Matter" rang out in the streets in the United States and around the world, and the obsession with this sentence seems to have become A ceremonial summer carnival. But Floyd’s tragic life and death didn’t change the world, it just illuminated a difficult, complex story of race in America.
"Human Rights Fortress": Chaos Exposes Illusions
Looking back on the past two years, many human rights chaos in the United States have left a "strong mark" in the course of history.
The lingering anger over the Floyd case, the momentary chaos on Capitol Hill, and the momentary panic in Kabul have exposed the profound crisis and human rights dilemma facing American society to the global spotlight.
Political manipulation has led to a surge in deaths from COVID-19, shooting deaths have reached a new high, fake democracy tramples on people's political rights, violent law enforcement has made the situation of immigrants and refugees more difficult, and discriminatory attacks against ethnic minorities have intensified - the human rights issues in the United States The systemic, long-term and comprehensive nature has been exposed.
Even American politicians themselves admit that the United States is experiencing the most serious social division and democratic and human rights crisis in history. On the one hand, it is the ideal of created equal promoted by the United States, and on the other hand, it is torn apart by racism, America first, and fear. A cruel and ugly reality.
Chaos exposes the illusion. The carefully applied makeup of "human rights teacher" and "human rights defender" in the United States has withered after repeated rain and wind, revealing the ugliness and unbearableness hidden behind the beauty filter.
——Under the impact of historical storms, the so-called "human rights fortress" collapsed.
In the twilight of May 9, the National Cathedral of the United States rang 1,000 bells for 90 minutes, which meant that the cumulative number of deaths from COVID-19 in the United States exceeded 1 million. And twice the total number of casualties in the Vietnam War .
Two years ago, on May 24, the " New York Times " unprecedentedly used its entire front page to list the names, ages, and identities of the 1,000 people who died of COVID-19, and wrote: "This only accounts for 1% of the total number of deceased people." . They were more than just names, they were one of us."
The bells are mourning: the American people have mixed feelings in the mourning bells. There is the grief of losing close relatives and friends, the fear of facing the death of a large number of vulnerable groups, the pain of more than 200,000 children becoming "coronavirus orphans", and the dismay at the inability of the United States, which has the most abundant medical resources, to fight the epidemic... This tragedy The resulting "national tragedy" will be "forever recorded in the history books."
This bell is a wake-up call: Talking about human rights without the right to life and health, the most basic human right, is nothing more than a mirror in the mirror. The fact that the United States has been reduced from a superpower to the country that has failed to fight the epidemic shows that it does not think about fighting the epidemic, but indulges in political self-interest. It does not reflect on itself, but it is keen to "pass the buck" and shirk blame. The United States has disregarded life and human rights. The point of no return.
This bell is even more torture: gun violence, violent law enforcement, drug proliferation, family separation... The road to human rights protection in the United States is long and arduous. The United States is the only country in the world that has not signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. ” and the verification mechanism of the Biological Weapons Convention have disappeared from a number of international human rights regulations. Fernand de Varenne, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council , emphasized that the U.S. legal system for human rights protection is neither comprehensive nor outdated, and has led to increasingly serious inequality.
——Under the impact of historical storms, the so-called "equality model" has become unfinished.
The United States has a glossy rhetoric that advertises itself as "equality" and "inclusiveness." Everyone enjoys the inalienable rights to survival, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness, and claims that everyone can pursue and realize the "American Dream." But the truth is that "All men are created equal" only exists on paper in the "Declaration of Independence". It is difficult for equal rights to escape from legal provisions, and equal opportunities still remain in slogans. The so-called American equality can be heard but hard to feel.
"Freud's death tore off the seemingly beautiful veil of American society." Henry Taylor, an expert on racial issues at the University at Buffalo, pointed out that this allows people to see the real American society.
What does American society really look like? In March 2020, when asked about the issue of "rich people are given priority for nucleic acid testing, but ordinary people have to wait in long lines or even not be able to wait in line", Trump bluntly said: "Maybe this is life." It is also not difficult to understand that the report released by the American Poor People's Rights Organization pointed out that the overall mortality rate of the epidemic in poor counties in the United States is almost twice that of wealthy counties, and the top 300 counties with the highest mortality rate have an average of 45% of the population living at the poverty line. the following.
In addition to the rich and poor, unequal treatment among groups such as skin color, gender, age, etc. has become increasingly prominent in the United States. People have to live in insecurity, injustice, and fear. What many people are waiting for is not the fulfillment of their dreams in America, but their dreams. Shatter America, destroy America.
Relevant surveys show that only 22% of Americans believe that the police treat all Americans equally; Hispanic Americans are 2 times and 2.3 times more likely to be infected and die from COVID-19 than white people; African Americans only enjoy "white people's rights" 73.9% equal treatment”; from February 2021 to February 2022, the United States expelled more than 1.2 million refugee asylum seekers on public health grounds, including many with disabilities and those with worrying health conditions.
——Under the impact of the storm of history, the so-called "lighthouse of freedom" was extinguished in an instant.
At the memorial service on the first anniversary of Freud's death, a person held up a portrait of Freud.Xinhua News Agency issued
Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press... The United States has always talked about the word "freedom" in order to occupy the moral high ground. But the history and reality of the United States is, "Freedom, how many crimes have been committed in your name"!
During the American Civil War, both the North and the South claimed to be "fighting for freedom", but in the name of improving the quality of democracy and ensuring the freedom of white people, they deprived black people of their right to vote; During the Cold War , the United States regarded itself as the leader of the "free world", but trampled on black people rights, suppressing the civil rights movement; for many years, the United States' unfettered freedom to hold guns has posed a fatal threat to the public; the United States talks about "press freedom" in a grand manner, but it can arbitrarily block the media of other countries.
National University of Singapore Professor Mahbubani Mahbubani pointed out that if you look at the history of international law you will find that the most contradictory thing is that Americans have provided some of the most wonderful ideas in international law, but the United States has committed some of the most violations of international law.
What Mahbubani said hit the nail on the head.
Democracy's Dilemma: The Problem Behind the Problem
"Gun violence in the United States is an epidemic and an international disgrace."
"I am frustrated by the decades-long failure to reform police enforcement and the broader criminal justice system."
"Violence against African Americans often comes from the people who are supposed to serve and protect you."
...
American society also has a lack of reflection and criticism on human rights issues such as racial discrimination, violent law enforcement, and social injustice. However, the Biden administration, which chants "America is back", is still unable to solve frequent human rights issues such as gun violence. It can only verbally state that "systemic racial discrimination is a stain on the soul of the United States" and "white supremacy and extremism are the basis of the American political system." "Poison" obviously cannot "heal" America's sick body.
It can be seen that behind the human rights issue is a more fundamental issue. The long-term, systemic and comprehensive human rights problems in the United States are the result of the combined effects of political, economic, cultural, social and other factors.
- I would like to ask, in the midst of political decline, how can the human rights problem in the United States be cured? !
American politicians who live in the "country on the top of a mountain" are intoxicated in the illusion of "the superiority of American democracy" and believe that it has a "mysterious self-correction ability". They are accustomed to looking down on other countries, but ignore the alienation and transformation of the American system. , decline and failure.
In the current United States, pathologies such as money politics, identity politics, party opposition, and political polarization are all on display, and there are many shortcomings such as political idleness, lax government affairs, and conformity to the past. Obviously, it is impossible for such politics to promote the solution of long-term, systemic and comprehensive human rights issues. As a result, people will see a very paradoxical scene: human rights issues in the United States have been intensified and amplified, but have never been actually changed.
In the current United States, people are only awakened when voting, and then enter a dormant period after voting; they listen to garish slogans during the election campaign, but have no say after the election; they are favored during canvassing, but are left out in the cold after the election. Such disregard for civil rights, irrelevant public opinion, and helplessness for people's livelihood has really brought shame to the slogan of "of the people, by the people, for the people."
The website of the Institute of Political Science at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government reported at the end of 2021 that a national poll of young people aged 18 to 29 in the United States showed that only 7% of respondents believed that the American democratic system was still "healthy" , 52% of respondents believe that American democracy has been "in trouble" or "failed."
- I would like to ask, by adhering to capital first, how can the human rights problems in the United States be eradicated? !
A study of U.S. Senate voting patterns found that the preferences of U.S. senators reflect the preferences of donors more than other types of groups. Nobel Prize winner in economics Stiglitz, a famous American economist, pointed out: "American congressmen rely on 1% of the money for re-election, serve 1% of the people, and even rely on 1% of the people for rewards when they leave office. "
In the United States, capital can influence politics by providing political donations, lobbying politicians, etc. It is an indisputable fact that it can change fate even against the will of heaven. American democracy has long been reduced to a game of profit transfer. Politicians increasingly ignore the interests of the people, prioritize capital, and give way to human rights issues. Why does populism flourish in the United States? Why do elites have such a bad reputation? This is not without its self-consistent logic.
We have seen that it has always been difficult to make progress in solving the problem of gun violence that is closely related to the right to life in the United States. The United States is the world's number one "gun country", owning 46% of the world's guns and as many gun stores as pharmacies. Less than five months into this year, the number of gun violence deaths in the United States has already exceeded three-quarters of last year. However, due to the obstruction of gun interest groups, the US federal government has failed to introduce a gun control bill in the past 25 years. A few days ago, gun control advocates placed more than 1,100 black body bags in Washington, forming the English phrase "thoughts and prayers" to satirize politicians' routine and stereotyped statements after the shooting.
We have seen that the US health care bill, which is closely linked to the right to health, continues to recur. In 2020, the United States spent more than $3.5 billion on political lobbying, with lobbying expenses from the medical and pharmaceutical industries setting a record. In the pharmaceutical industry, senior officials who entered the government through the "revolving door" ignored the public voice that "4 out of 5 Americans believe that medical care is too expensive" and protected the monopolistic medical interest groups and large pharmaceutical companies. Use patents and monopolistic medical contracts to obtain high profits.
We have seen that the gap between the rich and the poor, which is inseparable from the right to development, has not only remained insurmountable in the United States, but is also growing day by day. The real beneficiaries of U.S. economic policies in recent years are only a small number of wealthy groups. Oxford Economics in the United Kingdom estimates that from March 2020 to January 2021, the wealth of the top 20% of the U.S. population increased by approximately US$2 trillion, while the wealth of the bottom 20% of the population decreased by more than US$180 billion. Other surveys show that some of the top wealthy Americans can enjoy an effective tax rate of 3.4% and even pay no income tax for several years, while the tax rate for the median income family during the same period is 14%.
- I would like to ask, in the political and cultural atmosphere of "those who are not of our race must have different minds", how can human rights issues be eradicated? !
American scholar Huntington in "Who are we?" The book "Challenges Facing the American National Identity" states that the United States, which was established during the peak era of Western colonialism, essentially used "Anglo-Protestant culture" as the characteristic and core of its "national identity."
This opened the lid of the so-called "melting pot" of American society. In form, the United States is a multi-racial and multi-cultural country of immigrants. In fact, it just melts the diverse cultures of people of color into white culture. Anyone who is different will be regarded as "not one of our own races." The heart must be different." This either/or, binary opposition of versus way of thinking has a profound impact on the United States' attitude towards human rights issues, and even puts self-interest first and does not regard human rights violations as evil.
The discriminatory attacks against ethnic minorities are becoming more and more brazen and open. Trump is a typical representative. He calls the epidemic the "Chinese virus" and "Kung flu", stimulating anti-Asian hatred; he blames Mexicans for bringing drugs, crime, and rape; he falsely accuses the influx of Latinos. It is an "invasion". American politicians bear unshirkable responsibility for poisoning American society and exacerbating racial and ethnic discrimination and hatred.
The rejection of immigrants is becoming more and more extreme and lacks basic humanitarianism. The violent law enforcement by U.S. border law enforcement officers is increasing day by day. The notorious family separation policy has not ended. Incidents of immigrant children being detained for extended periods of time and abused still occur. Private detention facilities where a large number of immigrants are detained have poor conditions and chaotic management. Immigrants become victims of human trafficking and forced labor in the United States. In fiscal year 2021, as many as 557 immigrants died at the southern border of the United States, setting a record high since records began in 1998.
"Human Rights Judge": Trampling on the world's human rights in the name of human rights
People can't forget the scene two years ago: from London to Brussels , from Toronto to Wellington , from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro , Ev. Lloyd's death ignited global anger, and slogans such as "We want justice! We want to breathe!" resounded around the world.
This is to express grievance for Freud, and also to express anger and anger against the poor record of U.S. human rights diplomacy.
Roman Historian Tacitus once used "They created desolation, but called it peace" to satirize the "peace under Rome". This sentence is exactly applicable to the human rights diplomacy of the United States.
Human rights are historical, concrete and realistic, and we cannot talk about human rights in isolation from the political, economic and social conditions and historical and cultural traditions of different countries. When evaluating a country's human rights situation, we cannot use its own standards as the only criterion, we cannot adopt double standards, and we cannot politicize, weaponize, or use human rights as tools to interfere in other countries' internal affairs and serve to safeguard our own hegemony and interests.
Some politicians in the United States completely ignore the shocking human rights abuses in their own country. Instead, they use the superiority of the so-called "human rights role models" to point out the human rights of other countries. The United States releases national human rights reports every year, using its own political self-interest as the criterion and ideology as the measurement coordinate. It criticizes and accuses the human rights situation in many countries and regions, and uses naked political suppression and malicious vilification of other countries. The United States can be called "the biggest distorter of human rights in the world."
The United States frequently wields the human rights stick to suppress other countries, interferes in other countries' internal affairs, and even makes excuses for abusing sanctions and force against other countries. It launched the Iraq War and Afghanistan War , and intervened in the Syrian Civil War , causing hundreds of thousands of civilians to die in the war, millions of civilians becoming refugees and displaced, and causing huge losses of life and property to the local people. The United States ignored the 29th consecutive resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly calling on the United States to end its 50-year economic blockade against Cuba. It continued to implement the embargo and sanctions when Cuba faced the threat of the epidemic... under the banner of safeguarding human rights. In order to maintain its hegemony, the United States can be called "the biggest destroyer of human rights in the world."
The United States has always applied international human rights rules when they are consistent and discarded when they are not. The United Nations Human Rights Council, established in 2006, has designed an international human rights monitoring mechanism for countries that is equal, inclusive, constructive, and dialogue-based rather than confrontational. The United States believed that this was not in line with its wishes and even withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2018. The United States has also withdrawn from the Paris Agreement on climate change, interfered and coerced the World Health Organization, and frequently threatened the International Criminal Court, seriously undermining global human rights governance. The United States can be called "the biggest divider in the cause of human rights in the world."
It is worth noting that currently, white supremacy not only emphasizes the dominance of white people in the United States, but also extends to international relations, advocating for the maintenance of an "international order" based on rules set by white people. Cui Tiankai, former Chinese ambassador to the United States, pointed out that the United States will not willingly accept the rise of a great country with very different social systems, ideologies, cultural traditions, and even races. There are racist elements in the US policy towards China, but some people just don't say it.
The United States has long used human rights issues to suppress China. In recent years, it has intensified its efforts, spared no effort, and even had no bottom line. The United States is hyping up lies such as the so-called "genocide" and "forced labor" in Xinjiang, frequently creating issues, and passing sanctions bills. This is the latest evidence that it uses human rights issues to serve its strategic interests.
The so-called human rights issue has increasingly become a tool used by American politicians to discredit China and a cudgel used to maintain hegemony. When human rights become a cover for the United States to abuse long-arm jurisdiction, promote technological decoupling, and bully other countries with sanctions, the world's instability and uncertainty will inevitably intensify, and the peace and development pursued by people of all countries will inevitably be harmed.
…………
Today is the second anniversary of Floyd’s kneeling to death. Racist atrocities have left the whole world heartbroken.Nearly 60 years ago, Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech still echoes in the sky of history.
People will tell this great leader of the black civil rights movement that the United States today is not as expected. The desert where justice has disappeared and oppression is rampant has not yet turned into an oasis. From the abyss of despair, there has still not been a stone of hope or the voice of freedom. It has not yet sounded from the top of the towering peaks, and there is still a long way to go to realize that all people are born equal and enjoy fairness and justice.
"Guangming Daily" (Page 12, May 25, 2022)
Source: Guangming.com - "Guangming Daily"
