Image source: Reuters
China Daily Network August 29th (Dang Chaofeng) Bangladesh The "Dhaka Tribune" website wrote on the 28th that August 28th was the day when the American civil rights leader Martin Luther King The 59th anniversary of Kim ’s epoch-making speech “I Have a Dream.” The speech aroused a sense of freedom among African Americans, and millions of people conveyed a message: all men are created equal. Now, 59 years later, has Martin Luther King’s dream of racial equality been realized in the United States? Have ethnic minorities experienced less discrimination and hatred?
Just two months ago, on the afternoon of May 22, a shooting occurred at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. 10 people were shot dead on the spot and three others were seriously injured. The dead were all black except two. The shooter was 18-year-old Payton Gendron. The U.S. Department of Justice called this horrific act a hate crime, incited by serious racial hatred.
Interestingly, many black Americans pointed out the role the police played in Payton's arrest. If a black man were caught committing such a crime, the police would shoot him on the spot. But in Payton's case, they convinced him to hand over his weapons and politely took him into custody.
It is no longer news that the US police department discriminates against African Americans. In 2020, the "Black Lives Matter" movement rose like a raging fire. The 46-year-old African-American man George Floyd was killed by the white policeman Derek Chauvin "kneeling down" on his neck. Xiao Wan’s indifference and hatred towards black people are beyond comparison. In 2021, African-American young man Eric Garner was "choked" with his arms and died by a white policeman. Before his death, he shouted "I can't breathe" 11 times.
American police mainly exert their law enforcement power on black civilians. These hate crimes stem from an unexplainable and deep-rooted contempt - half from the historical habit of enslaving black people, and half from the re-incitement of far-right political rhetoric.
They think black people's skin is ugly. To them, black people have all the dirty and rotten emotions in the world. So much so that black people are not considered fully human and therefore human rights do not apply to them.
The belief that black people are born criminals is one of the most common stereotypes . Even after decades of living in the United States, they are still outsiders. White supremacists admit they fear being replaced by other ethnic groups living in the United States, especially African Americans.
Take the Buffalo shooting as an example. If little boys like Payton are driven by hatred, then this problematic sense of superiority and racial hatred must be instilled in them from an early age. Children develop a culture of racial hatred from an age when they are not even exposed to institutional education.
Hate crime statistics released by the FBI in 2020 show that states have a disproportionate number of hate crimes. 61.4% of hate crimes were based on ethnicity or race. Analysis of these crime reports reveals alarming levels of discrimination against African Americans.
Another report released by the FBI stated that in early 2022, from January to mid-February, 57 historically black educational institutions and religious sites received bomb threats.
Even after decades of struggle and movement, black people are still more likely to be targeted for hate crimes than any other group.
Hateful political rhetoric also contributes to this situation from time to time. Former U.S. President Trump has publicly expressed his support for white supremacists on many occasions. From calling them "my people" to asking congresswomen of color to go back to their hometowns. Political evocations of further racial hatred are always fueling the situation.
In his "I Have a Dream" speech, Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of an America free of hate, where his four children would be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the quality of their character. live in their kingdom. Now it seems that his dream has not yet come true.
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