Four years ago, the death of African American man George Floyd triggered a large-scale anti-racism protest in the United States. Why do racial discrimination incidents occur so frequently in the United States? What are its historical roots? What impact will the Floyd incident have on American politics?     

American racism is always rooted in history and realityWhat we usually call racism is a system formed by the theory of white racial superiority. American racism has always been deeply rooted in history and reality. Since its founding, it has been a country with a strong sense of racism. As early as the colonial period, the white Anglo-Saxon Protestants in Europe gained a dominant position in the political and social fields, while the indigenous people, Asians and other ethnic residents of the Americas were in a subordinate position and had long been discriminated against and oppressed. Since then, the development of racism in the United States has mainly gone through several historical periods, including the black slavery system, racial segregation and the post-racial era.

During the black slavery period, black slaves completely lost their personal freedom. After the Civil War, black slavery was abolished, but racial segregation was implemented. After the civil rights movement, the United States abolished the racial segregation system in 1964, and American racism entered the post-racial era, which scholars call "racism without racists", manifested as implicit racial discrimination and a symbolic prejudice. To this day, racism in the United States is still serious, affecting and exacerbating political polarization, causing serious divisions in American society.

"All men are created equal" is the slogan put forward by the founding fathers of the United States, but an obvious paradox is that the slavery system was retained in the 1787 Constitution, and the equal rights of black people were deliberately ignored. At that time, it was impossible for the United States to win independence without the participation of the southern slave states. When the Constitution was drafted in 1787, the southern states wanted to retain the slavery system, and the North had no choice but to compromise, so they teamed up to sell out the rights of black people. This result led to slavery becoming a legal system. In the concept at that time, black slaves were a kind of property and should be protected by law. This institutional arrangement was both contradictory and opposed to the concept of equality of all men in the Declaration, and it laid the seeds for future racial conflicts.

The Emancipation Proclamation only liberated slaves in the rebellious southern states, and the border states that did not rebel (Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and West Virginia) were not liberated. This was a limitation at the time. It was not until 1865, 1868 and 1870 after the Civil War that the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution were passed, formally abolishing black slavery and granting citizenship to black freemen.

Secondly, after the war, although blacks were nominally free, they gradually fell into another situation, namely the so-called "separate but equal". Under the policy of racial segregation, "whites are whites and blacks are blacks". Whites would not go to places where blacks ate, lived or worked. This segregation was initially a de facto segregation, not a legal one. In 1890, Louisiana passed a law requiring blacks to ride in segregated carriages. In 1892, a black man named Plessy was arrested for sitting in a white carriage. He took the case all the way to the Supreme Court. In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled that reserving and designating seats for blacks in public places such as train carriages did not deprive blacks of their civil rights, and clearly stated that "separate but equal" did not constitute discrimination. In fact, it affirmed this racial segregation policy. Since then, southern states have successively adopted similar policies. In fact, "separate but equal" is impossible. Segregation is real, and equality is virtual. For example, in a theater, blacks can only enter from the back door, and the blacks' drinking fountains are always difficult to use.

Another manifestation of inequality is that black people are deprived of the right to vote. Southern states have adopted various tricks to deprive black people of their right to vote. For example, literacy tests, poll taxes, and the infamous "grandfather clause". It stipulates that anyone whose grandfather or father had the right to vote before 1867 can be exempted from the poll tax and cultural test and directly participate in the election. However, the grandfathers of these black people were actually slaves, and it was impossible for them to have the right to vote. It can be seen that the grandfather clause only selectively relaxed the restrictions on the voting rights of white people, but further restricted and strangled the voting rights of black people. Until 1964, black people in rural Mississippi said, "I never knew that we black people could vote."

Racial discrimination in public places is no longer common. It is replaced by "implicit discrimination"

Since 1955, under the leadership of Martin Luther King, the civil rights movement has gradually unfolded in the South, demanding the elimination of racial segregation in public facilities. "One hundred years later, the Negro is still huddled in the corners of American society and realizes that he is an exile in his homeland." On August 23, 1963, Martin Luther King gave a speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, expounding on his personal dream: the sons of former slaves in Georgia and the sons of slave owners can be friends. The mass movement he led promoted the passage of three important civil rights bills, namely the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which abolished the racial segregation policy in public places, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which broke the shackles that bound black people to vote, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which legally gave black people the opportunity to freely choose their homes.

After the passage of the three civil rights bills, racial discrimination in public places has become less common, but actual racial discrimination still exists. It has been replaced by a kind of "implicit discrimination", which is more terrible because it is intangible and invisible, but it does exist. For example, in employment, education, and elections, blacks and whites can move forward in the same way in terms of laws and systems, and can reach the top of their professions and the top of society, but in reality it is not that easy. Once blacks reach a certain level, there will be an invisible barrier, a phenomenon called the "invisible ceiling". In fact, Martin Luther King's dream, the ideal "American Dream", will never be realized by blacks.

We can see that institutionalized racial segregation no longer exists, and black people have the opportunity to achieve certain success through their own efforts, which is a progressive aspect. However, the achievements of a few individuals do not mean that racial discrimination has disappeared. As a large social group, black people are still at the bottom of American society, and their education level, income level, and health status all need to be improved.

On the other hand, the black community in the United States is becoming increasingly polarized. Successful black elites tend to accept white elite-style education, and are somewhat alienated from traditional black culture in terms of values and cultural identity. Blacks at the bottom of society are not well educated and have long been subject to the prejudice that "blacks are inferior to others." They are considered incompetent by others, and even feel that they are incompetent themselves.

Racism in the United States will continue to influence and exacerbate the political polarization ecosystem

Former US President Barack Obama often quoted Martin Luther King's famous saying: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." However, it does not bend on its own, and some people even often bend it toward evil. After Obama was elected, everyone was optimistic for a while, saying that if a black person could become president, racism would no longer exist in the United States. In fact, although Obama used the banner of "change" in the general election, he did not change the stereotypes of racial relations. On the contrary, racism resurfaced during the Obama administration.

The Black Lives Matter movement actually began during Obama's presidency, sparking protests in many cities across the United States after George Zimmerman, a white auxiliary police officer who was charged with murdering unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2013, was acquitted. The movement gained further momentum after two other African Americans, Eric Garner and Michael Brown, died at the hands of police in 2014.

At first, the idea of white supremacy was only discussed among right-wing intellectuals. In his book Who Are We?, the late American political scientist Huntington raised the issue of identity politics impacting the characteristics of the American nation. The proportion of white people, who make up the majority of the U.S. population, has been declining over the past 50 years and is expected to fall below 50% by 2043. The proportion of ethnic minorities is rising, which will have a great impact on the U.S. economy, politics, society and other aspects. In addition, the economic crisis and cultural identity crisis are intertwined, triggering various social anxieties among white people.

Trump's slogan of "Make America Great Again" has been enthusiastically supported by the middle and lower class whites. Its essence is to restore the traditional American society of white supremacy. After Trump came to power, he made a fuss about immigration issues, built a wall on the US-Mexico border, recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and banned the issuance of visas to citizens of Islamic countries. The racist white supremacist movement gradually emerged from the previous social undercurrent with the help of the election, and American racism was further strengthened and expanded, exacerbating political polarization.

The United States has a system of separation of powers, with checks and balances between the president, Congress, and the Supreme Court, and the federal and state governments, which results in a large amount of resources and time being spent on internal friction. Trump feels constrained in many decisions, and he wants to bypass Congress and do many things on his own. Racism has exacerbated the division of Congress, providing him with a good space to play. At present, white supremacy is not only against black people, but more about emphasizing the dominance of white people in the entire society; it is not only domestic, but has expanded to international relations to formulate rules for white people to dominate the world.

The horrific scene of a white police officer violently kneeling on a man has triggered the most serious racial riots in the United States since the civil rights movement. This is George Floyd's personal tragedy, and it is also the result of the intensification of racial and nationalist contradictions in the United States. What is certain is that American racism will continue to affect and intensify the political polarization ecology, and it will take a long time for American society to bridge the rifts and resolve the contradictions.

In general, from the abolition movement 150 years ago to "I Have a Dream" more than 50 years ago, the United States has not eliminated racial discrimination. Moreover, the development of racial contradictions has become a huge problem for American society, and it is estimated that it will be a major problem that the United States needs to seriously solve in the next few decades.