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Discrimination
takes on as many forms as the biases, prejudices,
stereotyping, scapegoating, bigotry, and hatreds of
individual people do. Discrimination can be passive, as
in failure to extend the benefits of society to groups of
certain ethnic origins or beliefs. Discrimination also
takes the form of some of the most brutal violence in
recorded history. President Clinton, in his January 1997 inaugural address, called racial division "America's constant curse." Gross mistreatment of native Americans dates from this nation's earliest years. Africans were transported here in chains to provide slave labor. Americans of Japanese descent were interned in camps here during World War II. During past decades, U.S. officials also have tolerated lynchings, persecution of immigrant groups, and discrimination against Jews, Catholics, and members of other minority religious groups. Discrimination of earlier centuries and decades continues to poison present generations. Today's church burnings and other desecration of property belonging to minorities; police brutality and excessive use of force against people of color; discrimination in employment, housing, and social services: these acts are assaults on individuals' basic rights and on all Americans' right to a just and peaceful society. Likewise, all Americans benefit from progress in halting discrimination. Since the 1968 Kerner Commission report described this country as "two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal," progress has been achieved in some areas. Birmingham, Alabama, where four young African American girls were killed in a church bombing during the 1960s, elected an African American mayor in the 1990s. Yet today a majority of Birmingham's most marginalized residents are African Americans. The recent church burnings in the South destroyed core spiritual and material resources of African American communities. What may be remembered most, however, is that some 15,000 Americans of diverse races and religions volunteered to help rebuild the churches. Hispanic Americans, soon to be this county's largest minority group, report discrimination in housing, education, and employment. The odds are overwhelming that a dark-skinned Mexican American searching for housing in Dallas, for example, will experience discrimination. Immigrant groups remain a target of scapegoating and widespread misconceptions in the United States. The sector of the U.S. population born abroad, 8 to 9 percent, is lower than during the peak immigration period of the 1870s to the 1920s. An overwhelming majority of today's immigrants come here for the same reasons as many Americans' forebears did: to join family members, to work, to live in freedom. Some 80 percent of U.S. economists conclude that immigrants advance economic growth in this country. Immigrants pay far more in taxes than they receive in government benefits, revitalize inner cities, and establish 18 percent of all new businesses nationwide. Widespread discriminatory practices also target other minority groups, as well as women and individuals who express certain political or social views. Discrimination on the basis of a person's sexual orientation or lifestyle is common. Often an individual faces several "layers" of discrimination - for example, a woman of color may suffer certain types of discrimination because she is a woman and additional types of discrimination because of her ethnic origin. Americans with disabilities sometimes face discrimination from an early age, when schools turn them away solely because of their physical or mental challenges. When they are denied equal access to employment opportunities and to public services such as transportation, their basic human rights are violated. Older Americans may lose their jobs because of their age. They also experience discrimination in the public service sector and even in their own homes, where family members inflict beatings and other abuses. But like Americans with disabilities, they are mobilizing more than ever before to secure their right to full and equal participation in society. Patterns of discrimination and public moves to eradicate them often cross national frontiers. Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas and in Australia have suffered centuries of horrific discrimination. The rights of Roma, or Gypsy, communities in eastern Europe have been routinely trampled, as have the rights of Kurds in the Middle East and dark-skinned immigrants in western Europe, during the 1990s. The long history of antisemitism stretches across continents. Dominant ethnic groups in Africa have systematically discriminated against less advantaged groups. Latin Americans of African origin are routinely subjected to discrimination. Ethnic discrimination also pervades Asia. Globally, religious discrimination and discrimination on the basis of social or economic characteristics continue to rend individual lives, families, and societies. When state authorities exploit prejudices to advance their own political programs, they fuel violence. Instead of manipulating differences, national leaders everywhere should be working to prevent discrimination and to ensure equal enjoyment of universal human rights. Act Now:Request and Read Act Locally Act Nationally or Internationally Grab a Partner Raise Your Voice |
National Coordinating Committee for
UDHR50. |
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