US: American dream of genocide
While proclaiming itself a “beacon of democracy,” the US in fact tramples on the human rights of peoples of color in the country, committing genocide against American Indians, systematically discriminating against Asian and African Americans, and doing nothing for social inequality.
In America’s bloody history, the rights of American Indians have been seriously violated. The US government has carried out systematic ethnic cleansing and genocide against American Indian populations, among other acts of unspeakable genocidal crimes against other minorities in the country. Today, American Indians still live like secondclass citizens with their rights trampled upon.
On August 5, 2020, a report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the implications to human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes, submitted pursuant to the Human Rights Council resolution 36/ 15, decried the situation of the indigenous peoples in the US. They are regularly exposed to toxic pollutants, including nuclear waste, released or produced by extractive industries, agriculture, and manufacturing. Soil and lead dust pollution from mining waste poses a more significant health threat for indigenous populations in the US far more than other groups.
In addition to the serious abuse of the rights of American Indians, the instances of Asian Americans being discriminated against and abused in public spaces have increased sharply since the outbreak of the epidemic. Several media outlets in the US including the New York Times reported on the dire situation that Asian Americans face in the US.
According to an NBC News report, one in four Asian American youths experience racially motivated bullying. Due to irresponsible remarks by some US politicians, hatred toward Asian Americans and specifically toward Chinese Americans was stoked to astronomical levels in the US. UN human rights independent expert Tendayi Achiume said media and political leaders who have inflamed the rise of xenophobia and racial hatred amid the COVID- 19 pandemic are “entrepreneurs of intolerance,” According to a UN tweet.
An FBI report released in 2020 showed that 57.6 percent of the 8,302 single- bias hate crime offenses reported by law enforcement agencies in 2019 were motivated by race, ethnicity, or ancestry. Of these offenses, 48.4 percent were motivated by anti- black or anti- African American bias; 15.8 percent stemmed from anti- white bias; 14.1 percent were classified as anti- Hispanic or anti- Latino bias, and 4.3 percent resulted from anti- Asian bias. Among the 4,930 victims of racial hate crimes, as many as 2,391 were of African descent.
This is not only peculiar to Asian Americans, but African American human rights are also seriously disregarded in the US.
On May 25, 2020, 46- year- old George Floyd was brutally killed by white police officer Derek Chauvin on the street as Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for nine and a half minutes, disregarding Floyd’s distressed pleas at not being able to breathe. Shortly after Floyd’s death, which ignited nationwide anger in the US, 29- year- old black man Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back by a white police officer in the presence of his three children, and he was left paralyzed after the incident.
The US police shot and killed a total of 1,127 people in 2020, with no killing reported in just 18 days, according to Mapping Police Violence, a collection of interactive tools, maps, and figures that illustrate police violence in the United States. African Americans make up 13 percent of the US population but account for 28 percent of people killed by police. African Americans are approximately three times more likely than white people to be killed by police. From 2013 to 2020, about 98 percent of police officers involved in shooting cases were not charged with a crime, and the number of convicted was even lower, US media VOX reported.
Meanwhile, it’s reported that people of color died from the COVID- 19 epidemic in far greater numbers than their white counterparts. Of the 10 counties in the US with the highest COVID- 19 mortality rates, seven had a majority of people of color.
Due to the loss of confidence in the US government amid its poor handling of the epidemic, the number of people procuring guns has raised sharply, which threatens public security.
People of color were also more harmed by the COVID- 19 epidemic. Infection and death rates attributed to COVID- 19 in the US showed significant racial differences, with the infection, hospitalization, and death rate among African Americans being three times, five times, and twice that of their white counterparts respectively, according to a report delivered on August 21, 2020 by the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent to the UN Human Rights Council.
Racial disparities in the epidemic equally extend to children, according to a report released on August 7, 2020 by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Latino and black children were hospitalized with COVID- 19 at a rate nine and six times that of white children, respectively.
Barbara Ferrer, director of public health for Los Angeles County, said the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus disease on black and Latino residents is rooted in the impact of racism and discrimination on access to the resources and opportunities that are needed for good health, according to the Los Angeles Times website on July 10, 2020.
A tally by Johns Hopkins University showed that as of June 20, 2021, the US had registered more than 33.53 million confirmed COVID- 19 cases, with related deaths exceeding 601,000