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| China releases US human rights record in 2002 （14） |
| CCTV.COM 2003-04-03 16:04:33 |
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VI. Deep－rooted Racial Discrimination
Racial discrimination is deep－rooted in the United States. Senate Republican leader Trent Lott had repeatedly made remarks supporting racial segregation during his political life. He had tried by every means to prevent the Congress from passing a bill on establishing the birthday of Martin Luther King, a murdered civil rights leader of the blacks, as a national holiday.
On December 5, 2002, when attending a 100th birthday party for Sen. Strom Thurmond from South Carolina, who ran for the presidency in 1948 as a segregationist candidate, Lott said that the United States would be better off if Strom Thurmond had won the presidency that year. Lott's remarks triggered strong reaction of the Congressional Black Caucus.
In the end, Lott quitted his post as Senate Republican leader under the pressure of public opinion （"Black Caucus unforgiving after Lott's apology" by William M. Welch, Dec. 11 2002, USA Today）.
For more than 100 years between 1862 and 1965, the United States had enforced a law restricting immigrants from Asia and forbidding marriage between immigrants of Asian descent and white people. Many states nullified the law in the 1940s－1960s, but it is still in effect in the states of New Mexico and Florida.
Racial discrimination is serious in law enforcement. According to a study by the Justice Policy Institute of the United States, blacks constitute only 12.9 percent of America's total population, but black prisoners account for 46 percent of the total in jail in the nation； approximately one in every five blacks is jailed for some time during his or her life. （more）
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Editor: Wang Yin Source:Xinhua
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