The empty chair of the Speaker of the House on the Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 5, 2023. /Xinhua
Editor's note: Anthony Moretti, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is an associate professor at the Department of Communication and Organizational Leadership at Robert Morris University. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.
A new report, issued by the State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China (SCIO), offers an assessment of the human rights situation in the United States. The report serves as a reminder that the U.S. must improve in several areas in order to move ever closer to being the "more perfect Union," words that appear in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution.
The report's opening paragraph offers a stark summary: "The human rights situation in the United States continued to deteriorate in 2023. In the United States, human rights are becoming increasingly polarized. While a ruling minority holds political, economic, and social dominance, the majority of ordinary people are increasingly marginalized, with their basic rights and freedoms being disregarded. A staggering 76 percent of Americans believe that their nation is [moving] in the wrong direction."
That figure comes from an ABC News / Ipsos poll taken in November 2023. It also found that only one in three Americans has a favorable opinion of President Joe Biden and slightly fewer have a favorable view of former President Donald Trump. Remember, one of these two men is likely to be elected in 2024. Suffice to say the electorate is not happy.
The SCIO report identifies critical shortcomings in the U.S. As an example, it states that an inability to establish stronger gun laws has contributed "to a continued surge in mass shootings. Approximately 43,000 people were killed by gun violence in 2023, averaging 117 deaths per day." Only the most crass of people would suggest that because that figure has come down from a high of almost 49,000 in 2021 that America is now a safer place.
Of course, America's awful history of racism cannot be forgotten, but the report links the dangerous conditions many black people are in today to the inadequate healthcare they receive. One effect: "Due to significant racial discrimination in the healthcare sector, the maternal mortality rate for African American women is nearly three times that of white women."
A protester holds a sign near the White House in Washington D.C., U.S., June 8, 2020. /Xinhua
The SCIO report adds that while only less than 5 percent of the global population lives in the U.S., the country accounts for 25 percent of the global prison population. Here again, racism cannot be ignored because black Americans are 4.5 times as likely as white Americans to be behind bars, which the United Nations has challenged America to address.
The 31-page SCIO report cannot be dismissed as an attempt by one of America's foes to bash the United States. As noted in the examples above, data come from multiple sources, many of them Western media and respected international organizations.
Nevertheless, critics will be quick to throw away this analysis because the report was authored by a Chinese governmental agency. Terms such as "biased," "unfair," "one-sided" and "false" are likely to be tossed around, due to tensions in the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and China. But that negative assessment is blunted when one recognizes that Human Rights Watch (HRW) has expressed similar concerns about America's human rights situation.
In its opening remarks to its 2023 report, the HRW states that "officials need to take bolder steps to dismantle the systemic racism baked into many U.S. institutions and structures."
It warns that "networks of white supremacists and far-right extremists" have expanded their online presence, adding to the climate of fear for minority populations. That fear is justified when one acknowledges FBI data showing an increase in such crimes in 2022. About seven in 10 incidents in that year were directed toward people because of their race or ethnic identity. Meanwhile, the HRW adds that the United Nations has criticized the country for not implementing internationally accepted standards to combat racism.
The HRW also identifies "harsh immigration policies such as expulsion, detention, deportation, and extreme anti-asylum policies" as another mark against the U.S. The report condemns political officials in Arizona, Florida and Texas for sending migrants and refugees to all corners of the country "without regard for the likely location of their relatives or court hearings."
Examples, whether they come from the SCIO or the HRW, are plentiful, and they all point to an uncomfortable conclusion: Polarization in America means that unless someone is white, male and heterosexual, there are flawed policies and corrosive histories in place that make navigating daily life treacherous for millions of people living in the U.S. Offensive rhetoric about ethnic minorities that millions of Americans thought had been successfully tamped down is again out in the open, and that means the notion of the "other" being somehow inferior to the "mainstream" damages America's human rights situation.
The U.S. is a country proud of its values. Now is the time for it to affirm a commitment to them by doing much more to guarantee that a "more perfect Union" can be achieved. It will take hard work, but that is another value Americans espouse.
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