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African Americans Weigh Racism, Reparations
WASHINGTON, Aug 26 (News Agencies) - Nearly four decades after the end of official segregation, racial divisions persist in the United States and the question of reparations for descendants of slaves is gaining currency in the black community.
The inordinately large proportion of blacks within prison populations, the higher incidence of black drivers being stopped by law enforcement officials than white, and pervasive poverty among Blacks (30% of black households are officially classified as poor) all fuel suspicion of racial discrimination.
Charges of racially tainted police brutality were behind the April race riots in Cincinnati, Ohio.
However, there are many examples of success among African-Americans.
The struggle led by Martin Luther King produced new civil rights legislation in the 1960s, while his followers made headway in promoting affirmative action - a policy that opened university doors wider for young minority students, and gave minorities increased access to government jobs and contracts.
Black singer Whitney Houston recently signed a $100 million contract.
Golfer Tiger Woods and tennis player Venus Williams have emerged as new sensations in the area of sports.
And, General Colin Powell has become the first black Secretary of State.
"There have been tremendous absolute improvements and some comparative improvements," according to Ron Walters, a professor at the University of Maryland. He also stated that there was a substantial increase in the black middle class between the 1960s and the 1980s.
"But racism is a given factor in the U.S., everybody knows it," Walters added.
In a report entitled "Racism and the Administration of Justice", the human rights group, Amnesty International, cited the disproportionate rates of incarceration, sentencing to death and execution among minorities in the United States.
"The Bush Administration must participate in efforts to eradicate racism at home and abroad, and must seize the opportunity to move beyond the empty rhetoric on race of previous administrations by vigorously joining the debate at the World Conference against Racism," said Gerald LeMelle, Amnesty International USA Deputy Executive Director.
African Americans and other minorities account for 60% of the more than 1.7 million people currently in jail or prison in the United States, the report said.
African-American men are imprisoned at more than eight times the rate of white men, and one third of all young African-American men are in jail or prison, or on parole or probation, according to the document.
Amnesty asked President George W. Bush to ensure the United States will take part in the upcoming U.N. World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerances in Durban, South Africa.
Washington has threatened to boycott the event (as it did in 1978 and 1983) if controversial language on the Middle East as well as the other key issue, African calls for compensation for slavery and colonialism, stay on the agenda.
Walters, who plans to travel to Durban, wants to ask delegates to recognize the principle of reparations for slavery.
He sees this as an initial symbolic step and will not mention any specific amount - unlike, for example, a law that authorized payment of $1.2 billion in restitution to Japanese Americans interned during World War II.
A petition drive is under way in all 50 states in support of two slave reparation bills before the U.S. Congress, according to the newspaper Afro-American.
They call for compensation for the unpaid work during the centuries of slavery that laid the foundation for the wealth being enjoyed by the United States today.
But black author Shelby Steele criticized what he called the culture of "victimhood," which he said prevents blacks from solving their true problems.
"Today, 70% of all children are born out of wedlock," he said. "Sixty-eight percent of all violent crime is committed by blacks most often against other blacks."
But Walters responded, "The cultural conditions in the ghettos were created because of the grinding poverty many brought to the cities of the North from the South, as a result of slavery."
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