There is a devastating analysis by Mark Bearak in the Washington Post today, “Sometimes it takes an outsider to crystallize America’s enduring racism”. He quotes from a UN report on racism in the US by Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai, a respected lawyer from Kenya:
The United States "is an economic powerhouse, a military superpower, a global engine of technological development, and one of the oldest democracies in the world. It is also an extremely diverse nation, a nation of indigenous peoples, slaves and immigrants. ... The experiences with various forms of diversity and complexity have not always been smooth. The country was founded on land stolen from its indigenous Native Americans; its early economic strength was built on race-based slavery against people of African descent; and successive waves of immigrants have faced discrimination, harassment or worse."
It is an amazing analysis of our past history and ongoing racism:
The so-called “War on Drugs” is a perfect example. From it, one out of every 15 black men is in currently jail. One out of every 13 African-Americans, meanwhile, has lost their right to vote due to a felony conviction. An aggressive emphasis on street-level “law and order” (or “broken windows” approach) policing combined with wide police discretion means that African-Americans are subjected to systematic police harassment – and sometimes much worse — often for doing nothing more than walking down the street or gathering in a group. Convictions and incarcerations dramatically increased once the “War on Drugs” was set in motion, without a corresponding increase in drug use.
Fair use demands I stop quoting, but one last one:
Unfortunately almost all cities require permits for protests, contrary to international law and standards. In Philadelphia, as in some other locations, the requirement to obtain a permit is not always rigidly enforced, but this opens the process to arbitrariness and uncertainty. ...When a right is subjected to a permit or authorization requirement, it becomes a privilege rather than a right. ...
Go read the rest of it. It is a breakthrough report on the history of racism in this country in the last 100 years specially the present.