Blacks continue to suffer disproportionately under nation’s criminal justice system
Demonstrators are arrested during a protest against the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the United States, May 31, 2020. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
Nearly 60 years have elapsed since the late Martin Luther King Jr made his touching “I have a dream” speech to protest racial discrimination, yet his grandchildren are still judged by the color of their skin rather than the content of their character.
Aggravating the problem of racial discrimination, racial injustice has permeated the bedrock of the United States’ criminal justice system, tarnishing the nation’s human rights record.
According to the Center for American Progress, the vast racial inequities that exist today are the result of inequitable policies that were long in the making.
The administration of US President Joe Biden, a self-proclaimed champion of human rights, seems committed to the eradication of racism in the criminal justice system. However, human rights groups, civil rights organizations, academics and other critics have argued that the US justice system exhibits systemic racial biases that harm minority groups, particularly African Americans.
According to Article 5 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, “State parties undertake to guarantee the right of everyone … to equal treatment before the tribunals and all other organs administering justice.”
Contrary to the above principle, the US judiciary has failed to guarantee the right of black people to equal treatment before the law. Some critics have highlighted the overrepresentation of black people on death row as evidence of the unequal racial application of capital punishment.
Two capital offense cases have drawn criticism and caused a barrage of public anger in the black community. In McCleskey v Kemp, the petitioner, a black man convicted of murdering a white police officer, alleged that the death sentence process was administered in a racially discriminatory manner in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution.
Another highly controversial case is the November execution of Kevin Johnson, a black man convicted of killing a white police officer. The execution of Johnson is regarded by critics as an example of racial injustice because of allegations that race had been a decisive and unconstitutional factor throughout the prosecution. Special prosecutor Edward Keenan had contended that racist prosecution techniques tainted Johnson’s conviction and death sentence.
Equally of concern is that the US has been sitting on the problem of the disproportionately high incarceration rate for black people. Despite some reductions in incarceration rates for blacks in recent years, black offenders remain vastly overrepresented in prisons. There are significant racial disparities within the US prison population, with black individuals making up 38.2 percent of the federal prison population in 2020 despite accounting for only 13.4 percent of the total population.
Racial injustice and racial inequities are two sides of the same coin. Economic inequality, in particular, has adversely affected blacks and other minorities, and the wealth gap between black people and white people in the US has remained unchanged. Black, Latin American, Asian and Native American communities have been disproportionately burdened by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, a situation that critics say has deepened racial injustice in healthcare, housing, employment, education and income.
All eyes are now on how the Biden administration implements Executive Order 13985, which aims to advance racial equity and support underserved communities. Although Biden has tried to cultivate an image of being an advocate for racial equity, the deep-rooted problems of racial injustice and racial inequities have gone from an illness of the limbs to organic degeneration.
In a speech to the Democratic National Convention in 2004, Barack Obama, then a candidate for the US Senate, said, “There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America, there’s the United States of America … We are one people.”
Sadly, the opposite proves true and Americans are not one people.
In spite of its illusionary goodwill in promoting human rights diplomacy, the US has a notorious record of entrenched racial injustice in its criminal justice system.
Junius Ho Kwan-yiu is a Legislative Council member of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and a solicitor. Kacee Ting Wong is a barrister and part-time researcher at Shenzhen University’s Hong Kong and Macao Basic Law Research Center.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.