Racism in US - Then and Now

Then in 1920's.

During the 1920's, racial tensions in American society reached boiling point. New non-protestant immigrants like Jews and Catholics had been arrived in their masses from south-east Europe since early on in the century. Together with Orientals, Mexicans and the Black population these minorities suffered the most at the hands of those concerned with preserving the long established White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (W.A.S.P.) values that were an integral part of American life. Prejudice and racism reared its ugly head in many areas of society, with people showing a tolerance for racist views in the media, literature and towards organisations like the Ku Klux Klan. Also the language, living and working conditions and Government legislation that ethnic minorities were subjected to is further evidence that the twenties was an openly discriminatory decade.

During the 1920's the Federal Government did little to alleviate poverty and socio-economic disadvantage amongst its ethnic minorities. However at this time few Americans would have expected it to intervene in the way it does nowadays.The racial discrimination towards ethnic minorities during the twenties can also be seen in the job opportunities available to them. Blacks, Mexicans, and the recent immigrants clustered as the bottom of the wage scale. All were usually the last hired and the first fired and performed menially jobs. Mexicans were employed as cheap labour on Californian farms. Wherever the minorities worked the 'native' Americans saw them as a threat to their livelihood, as they normally accepted jobs that the whites did not want. Despite emancipation from slavery after the Civil War, the former slaves remained at the bottom of the social scale in the southern states, where most blacks lived. They lacked economic independence, since they largely worked in white-owned land. Many poverty stricken Blacks migrated from the south to the north during the twenties, to fill the demand for unskilled labour in the North. This however led to resentment from the white workers who saw them as competitors. To add to their problem, Blacks were subject to discrimination at work too.

In can been said that the 1920's were marked considerably by racial tensions between the ethnic minorities and those who upheld white Anglo-Saxon values. Grievances regarding ethnic minorities, that had been simmering throughout the 'native' American population decades before, got stronger and came to be recognised. Tolerance for racist views in the media, literature and in organisations like the Ku Klux Klan. Similarly the hostile attitude of the Federal Government during the twenties did not set a good example for its people regarding ethnic groups. The racial prejudices that had been ingrained throughout American society in the 1920's would only subside with the passage of time.

Now

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Dec. 10th released a comprehensive analysis of the pervasive institutionalized, systemic and structural racism in America. The report is a response to the U.S. report to the United Nations' Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) released earlier this year. The ACLU called the U.S. report a "whitewash."

The U.S. government submitted its report in April to the CERD committee, an independent group of internationally recognized human rights experts that oversees compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, a treaty signed and ratified by the U.S. in 1994.  All levels of the U.S. government are obligated to comply with the treaty's provisions.

Based on information provided by the ACLU affiliates in more than 20 states, the ACLU said, "The U.S. report failed miserably in accurately characterizing the state of race relations and intolerance in this country."

The report details the setbacks in the promotion of racial and ethnic equality, including the government's attack on affirmative action and the courts' curtailment of civil rights. The report finds that discrimination in America permeates education, employment, treatment of migrants and immigrants, law enforcement, in the justice system.

The ACLU report takes note of the U.S. government's behavior around Hurricane Katrina (a pdf file) the dramatic increase in hate crimes, police brutality, racial profiling, and the government's failure to protect immigrants and non-citizens, and particularly low-wage workers.

Relative to Asians, the ACLU is relatively weak. While it rightly emphasizes discrimination against African Americans and Latinos, it notes little of things such as hate crimes and employment abuse and discrimination against Asian Americans except in noting the targeting of South Asians post-9/11.

The ACLU report, Race & Ethnicity in America: Turning a Blind Eye to Injustice, can be found online.

According to the State of Black America 2005 issued by the National Urban League, blacks who are arrested are three times more likely to be imprisoned than whites once arrested, blacks are sentenced to death four times more often than whites, and a black person's average jail sentence is six months longer than a white's for the same crime.

Although blacks are just 12.2 percent of the American population, 41 percent of American prisoners detained for more than one year are blacks and 8.4 percent of all black men between the ages of 25 and 29 are behind bars.

According to reports issued by the Human Rights Watch and other organizations, following the Sept. 11 attacks, at least 70 people, all but one Muslim, were held as "material witnesses" under a narrow federal law that permits the arrest and brief detention of "material witnesses".

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission quoted a report as saying that the employment discrimination rate was 31 percent for Asians and 26 percent for African Americans, and the discrimination against Muslims doubled after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Further

White Americans think racial discrimination is increasing although black Americans think it's decreasing, a recent nationwide telephone survey of more than 2,000 Americans found. The findings are the first phase of a three-year study called the American Mosaic Project, which examines race and religion in the United States.

Percent of people who have experienced racial discrimination:
Whites: 30% Blacks: 75.5% Hispanics: 60.1%.

The findings also show that 77 percent of Americans believe prejudice and discrimination are important factors in explaining why blacks have less-profitable jobs, lower incomes and inferior housing than whites.

Sixty-three percent of participants said they believe prejudice and discrimination in favor of whites are important in explaining the whites' advantage.