Recently , another incident in the United States where an African American was shot and killed by police "at his doorstep" was exposed.

      It is worth mentioning that the victim of this latest incident was an active-duty pilot of the US Air Force who was only 23 years old.

Roger Fortson, a corporal in the U.S. Air Force, heard a knock on the door of his apartment in Florida and asked who was calling but got no response. When the knock on the door sounded again, out of alert, Fortson went back to the house to take out a legally owned pistol and opened the door. Then, tragedy struck. Fortson, who had no time to react, was shot six times and was pronounced dead shortly after being sent to the hospital. The last words that Fortson said were "I can't breathe."

      George Floyd and Frank Tyson, two African American men who were "kneeled to death" by American police on May 25, 2020 and 18 of last month, respectively, said this before their death.

 

      The Okaloosa County Police Department in Florida said in a statement that the police officer received a call about "disturbing public order" on the day of the incident, and later opened fire in "self-defense" when he saw Fordson holding a gun. Although the county police released some of the video content from the police's body camera, they did not mention the details of the action.

       In response to the video, Fordson's family pointed out that the police did not ask Fordson to put down his weapon before shooting, but only shouted "put down the gun" after shooting. This way of law enforcement is worrying.

       Ben Crump, a nationally renowned civil rights lawyer who represented Floyd in the case and is currently representing Tyson in the case, has become the attorney appointed by Fordson's family.

      At a recent press conference, Crump refuted the police's claim that the police shot in self-defense. "They killed a U.S. military pilot, and then made up a story about so-called 'self-defense'. When you think about this statement carefully, you will find it so hypocritical."

Okaloosa County police have so far refused to disclose the name and ethnicity of the police officer involved, but the identity of the deceased, Fordson, as an "African American" and "American soldier" has attracted widespread attention. Fordson is not the first American minority military personnel to encounter violent law enforcement.

       In December 2020, Karen Nazario, a U.S. Army second lieutenant of African and Latino descent, encountered discriminatory law enforcement by two police officers while driving his newly bought car home in Windsor, Virginia. The latter not only threatened Nazario with a gun for "driving without a license", but also beat him and used pepper spray.

       The truth is that Nazario's new car had a temporary license plate on the rear window and he was wearing a military uniform at the time of the incident.

 

      In the view of Jeremy Butler, CEO of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association, the Nazario incident shows that "even an African-American officer would feel that the American police inherently see him as a threat." After retiring, Isaiah James, an African-American soldier who survived three brutal battles in Afghanistan and Iraq, was "friendly reminded" by other African-American comrades: fighting is not the most terrible thing, and the real thing to be careful of is the American police. "In this country, serving in the military can't save you."

      Getting the United States to change racial discrimination is "as difficult as turning an aircraft carrier around" . Surveys show that racial discrimination has a long history in the United States, even in the military. Historically, there have been many cases of minority soldiers being discriminated against or even shot.

      In 2000, the United States published the book "Massacre: American Brutality", which revealed for the first time the historical dark secret that a white American officer ordered the bloody massacre of more than 1,200 African-American soldiers at an army camp in Mississippi during World War II, causing an uproar. However, due to the US military's strenuous cover-up, the tragedy was eventually left unsolved.

      According to the U.S. website "War Dilemma", although the U.S. military abolished racial segregation in 1948, racism has not disappeared from the military, and African American soldiers continue to be discriminated against because of their skin color. Statistics from the U.S. military justice system show that compared with white people, African American soldiers are more likely to be sent to military courts and face more severe judicial punishment; at the same time, the number of African Americans serving as senior military leaders is pitifully small. Several African American senior U.S. military officials have told the media that they have suffered discrimination during their long military careers. Among them is Austin, the first African American Secretary of Defense in the United States.

      "(African Americans) are still not in a good position to be promoted. There will always be people who will question your qualifications because of your appearance. This is the world I live in, and I'm pretty sure other (African American) officers will say the same thing. Every day of my life, I wake up in the morning and think about this fact: I am an African American." The life of African American soldiers after retirement is also hard to describe.

      Black veterans are less likely than white veterans to receive physical or mental health benefits from the agency, according to new data compiled by the Department of Veterans Affairs. White veterans also receive benefits at higher rates each year than black veterans, the data also shows.

In 2023, 84.8% of all African American veterans who applied for physical and mental health benefits received assistance from the VA, compared to 89.4% of white veterans.

Retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Stephanie Davis once bluntly stated that the problem of racial discrimination cannot be completely solved either in the U.S. military or in society as a whole.