{"id":108475,"date":"2020-11-09T16:37:44","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T23:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=108475"},"modified":"2020-11-09T16:37:44","modified_gmt":"2020-11-09T23:37:44","slug":"the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-part-2-c3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/11\/09\/the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-part-2-c3\/","title":{"rendered":"THE POHOTTUWA GOVERNMENT OF SRI LANKA Part 2 C3"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The most\nsignificant fault line in USA, however, is not any of these. It is the racism\nshown to the African American.  When the African slaves were released from\ntheir cotton plantations in 1865, instead of freedom, the former slaves,\nfound themselves less safe. Slavery was replaced by organized terror. Negroes were\nkilled by   anti \u2013black organizations, like\nKu Klux Klan (KKK).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 KKK was a white\nsupremacist<\/a> hate group<\/a> whose\nprimary targets are Americans. It was active in the south between 1860-1870.\nThere was a second wave of KKK starting in 1915 and peaking in 1920. This is\nits best known period.  The KKS is still\naround. It has not disappeared completely. Researchers found   in 2016 that there are just over 30 active\nKlan groups in the US, plus an unknown number of associates and supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was\nalso systemic racism,\u201d operating\nthrough segregation laws. Systemic\nmeans spread throughout the system.  Segregation by colour was legal in the\nUS.  This means that it is not only South\nAfrica that had apartheid against the African Negro. USA also had similar laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was segregation in schools, public transport, public places,\nrestrooms, restaurants, and drinking fountains. The separate facilities for\nAfrican Americans were inferior. Sometimes, there were no facilities at all for\nthem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1954, segregation of state- schools  was declared unconstitutional<\/a> by the U.S.\nSupreme Court<\/a> in the landmark case Brown v.\nBoard of Education<\/em><\/a> \nBut states  took many years to\nimplement this decision. The segregation laws were finally removed by the Civil\nRights Act of 1964<\/a> and the Voting\nRights Act of 1965<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 However, in 2018, on the 50th anniversary, of\nthe assassination of Martin Luther King, it was found that things had not\nchanged. Schools are still racially segregated, poverty is greater among the\nblacks, home ownership is still less than whites said the media.  The racism became more   systemic, not less. There\nis systemic racism across every institution in America, said analysts in 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communities are racially segregated, in the USA,\nTIME observed in 2018. In Chicago the Polish, Greek, Black and Hispanic neighborhoods,\nare set close to each other, but they do not speak to each other, said TIME\nin2018. Racism extends to Puerto Rican and Korean immigrants and the Hmong\nrefugees from Lao. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first\nquarter of 2020, 74% of white people owned their homes, only 44 % blacks did. Black\nAmericans trying to buy homes are denied mortgages, or are given them at higher\nrates.  Federal mortgage schemes helped\nwhites to buy houses, but not blacks. They said that the presence of a black\nresident in the neighborhood reduced the value of the home. Black Americans\nlive in less prosperous areas. Hurricane flooding affects black neighborhoods\nmore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you were\nnot white you could not get a well paying job. \nA study showed they called for interview those with white sounding names.\nBlack Americans were left toiling into old age or were forced onto the streets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unemployment\nis higher among black than whites. Black Americans are more likely to be\nunemployed, and those with jobs earn less than their white peers. Even if a black or brown person\nearns a college degree she will still lag behind a white American with the same\ndegree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Health wise,\nBlack children lack nutrition, so they are prone to health ailments.   Black women are three times more likely to\ndie in childbirth. Covid 19 killed more blacks than whites in USA. 53%\nwere  black.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schools are not totally integrated in the USA, TIME\nobserved in 2018.  The best schools are for\nwhites only. Black children are more likely to be in  schools which lack resources. \nIn integrated schools, there are different punishments in school for\nblack and brown children. Only 7% of primary school teachers in USA are\nBlack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black voters\nface difficulties  in  voting at general election.   Laws\nare designed to keep them from exercising voting rights,    also they are disenfranchised due to felony\nconvictions.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are\nstrict requirements for voter ID s which act against Blacks and younger voters.\nVoters have to have street addresses, not PO boxes.  There are Voter roll purges, discrepancies of\nname, or how recently they last voted. Also  felony records. Reduction of voting\nhours,  last minute changes  of voting locations,  disproportionately target those of color. Black\nvoters   are given false information before the\ngeneral election about when, and how to vote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a racist bias in policing, sentencing and\nrates of incarcerations said TIME. Black residents were about nine\ntimes more likely than whites to be arrested for low level offenses. Blacks\nwere thrown in prison for decades for say cocaine, when a white was not. Black\nprisoners outnumber white prisoners. Sentencing has torn apart families and\nleft black children to grow up in single parent homes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police spoke\nless respectfully to black drivers than white, said TIME. They are\nfaster to shoot black people with guns than white people with guns. They shot\nblack people even when they were not using guns. CNN reported in  August 2020 that two Wisconsin police\nofficers  had shot a Black man multiple\ntimes in the back as he entered  his car.\nThe man’s three children, 3, 5 and 8 years old, were in the car .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case\nof the death of George Floyd, the world saw the police officer casually\nkneeling on the victim\u2019s neck. Neck restraint \nis permitted in Minneapolis and Minneapolis police have used this at\nleast 44 times. In 3\/5 of these cases they were black. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When more\nthan 140 cities exploded after Floyd killing, police used tear gas and rubber\nbullets. Those who protested over the Floyd killing were arrested. Most we\nblack. Arrests involve costly fines, loss of employment, and a stigma which\ncould affect  the ability to obtain\nhousing, jobs, education and occupational licenses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 National surveys have shown that 60-80% of\nprivate institutions and 55% of public institutions require prospective\nstudents to answer on their criminal record. This is also biased towards black\npeople. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Criminal\nhistory questions appear in the majority of undergrad applications. Even minor\ncases do not disappear from criminal records. It is very difficult to get a\nrecord expunged also many states only allow one expungement in a life time.\nArrests can be easily discovered and it affects employment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lankans visiting US have observed this   racism. Wiswa Warnapala  observed that on our way to Canada,  in the 1970s,our car at a gas station in\nChicago was the last to be served. Such minor incidents were plenty, he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jehan Perera said, in the 1980s, when I was a student in the US,\nthe black-white divide persisted , despite the laws and affirmative action\npolicies. This was most evident in the freshman dining hall for first year\nstudents. There was a series of long dining tables in the hall where students\ncould sit wherever they pleased. But it soon became evident that there were a\nrow of tables on a side towards the back where only African American students\nwould sit.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malinda\nSeneviratne (b. 1965) said, I spent around seven years, total, in the USA. I\nhave seen racism. I have spoken to victims of the racists every day in the\nUSA.  Racism is  a serious \nissue in the USA. It is  several\ncenturies long.  It is, was and is likely\nto remain a problem. ( Continued) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS The most significant fault line in USA, however, is not any of these. It is the racism shown to the African American.  When the African slaves were released from their cotton plantations in 1865, instead of freedom, the former slaves, found themselves less safe. Slavery was replaced by organized terror. Negroes were killed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}