Racial discrimination aggravates social split in America: report

Graphics shows racial relations in the United States continued to deteriorate in 2017, according to a report on U.S. human rights released on April 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Meng Lijing)

BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Racial relations in the United States continued to deteriorate in 2017, according to a report on U.S. human rights released Tuesday.

The report, titled "Human Rights Record of the United States in 2017" and published by China's State Council Information Office, said social antagonism has been intensified and racial conflicts frequently occurred in the country.

Racial discrimination exists in law enforcement and judicial organs, the report noted. Black male offenders received sentences on average of 19.1 percent longer than those of "similarly situated" white male offenders, it said, citing a report of the U.S. Sentencing Commission released in November 2017.

According to statistics by the Mapping Police Violence released on January 1, 2018, the U.S. police killed 1,129 people in 2017, of whom 25 percent were black people, much higher than their population distribution of 13 percent.

The report said racist hate crimes hit record high in recent years in the United States. According to statistics released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in November 2017, a total of 6,121 hate crimes were reported nationwide in 2016, to a point not seen in recent history.

Minority groups have lower employment rates and less payment, and racial wealth gap became larger, said the report.

According to data released by the Federal Reserve in September last year, between 2013 and 2016, wealth gap between black and white families grew by 16 percent during that time, and by 14 percent between Hispanics and whites.

The report noted that Muslims suffered from discrimination and assaults in the United States. According to a Pew Research Center analysis of hate crimes statistics from the FBI, the number of assaults against Muslims in the country rose significantly between 2015 and 2016, surpassing the modern peak reached in 2001, the year of the September 11 terrorist attacks.