新冠肺炎疫情凸显“美式人权”危机文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/9347.html
The COVID-19 Pandemic Magnifies the Crisis of “U.S.-Style Human Rights”文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/9347.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/9347.html
中国人权研究会文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/9347.html
The China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS)文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/9347.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/9347.html
2020年6月文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/9347.html
June 2020文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/9347.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/9347.html
突如其来的新冠肺炎疫情，是第二次世界大战结束以来人类经历的最严重的全球公共卫生突发事件，也是世界各国面临的一次“人权大考”。病毒没有国界，疫病不分种族。科学采取疫情防控措施、全力保障人民生命安全和身体健康，是各国政府共同承担的人权责任。然而，美国政府在应对疫情上的自利短见、任性低效和不负责任，不仅造成约200万美国民众感染病毒、11万多人死亡的悲剧，更使得美国长期存在的社会撕裂、贫富分化、种族歧视、弱势群体权益保障不力等问题充分暴露和持续恶化，导致美国民众陷入深重的人权灾难。文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/9347.html
The sudden and unexpected outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic is the most serious global public health emergency that humanity has experienced since the end of World War II. It is also a “big test of human rights conditions” for all countries across the globe. The virus does not respect borders, nor is race or nationality relevant in the face of the disease. Given this, to honor our common commitment to human rights, governments of different countries are obliged to adopt scientific measures for the prevention and control of the virus and do their best to ensure the health and safety of their people. Nevertheless, the U.S. government’s self-interested, short-sighted, inefficient, and irresponsible response to the pandemic has not only caused the tragedy in which about 2 million Americans became infected with the virus and more than 110,000 have died from it, but also caused the exposure and deterioration of the long-existing problems within the United States, such as a divisive society, the polarization between the rich and the poor, racial discrimination, and the inadequate protection of the rights and interests of vulnerable groups. This has led the American people into grave human rights disasters.
一、美国政府应对疫情不力导致人权灾难
1. The U.S. Government’s Ineffective Response to the Pandemic Leading to Human Rights Disasters
美国联邦政府对待疫情防控心有旁骛、懈怠失措、自以为是，迟至2020年3月13日才宣布美国因疫情进入紧急状态，付出了数万人的生命代价。美国约翰斯·霍普金斯大学发布的疫情统计数据显示，截至美国东部时间6月9日，美国累计新冠肺炎感染确诊病例达1971302例，累计死亡病例达111620例，两项数据均大幅高于其他国家或地区。这对于全球经济和科技实力最强、医疗资源最丰富的美国而言，无疑是一个令人悲伤的讽刺。
Being distracted, slack, and opinionated in the face of the pandemic, the United States Federal Government declared a national emergency on March 13, after tens of thousands of deaths had occurred. The pandemic statistics released by Johns Hopkins University in the United States showed that as of June 9 Eastern Standard Time (EST), there had been 1,971,302 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 111,620 deaths from the virus in the United States, with both figures significantly higher than those of other countries. For the United States, which boasts the strongest economic and technological strength and the most abundant medical resources in the world, this is a sad irony.
忽视疫情预警。根据《纽约时报》《华盛顿邮报》等媒体2020年4月复盘的美国疫情时间线，美国政府一再忽视疫情警告，怠于采取防控措施。美国白宫国家安全委员会在1月初就收到情报，预测病毒将在美国蔓延。白宫贸易与制造业政策办公室主任彼得·纳瓦罗在1月29日撰写的一份备忘录中，详细列举了疫情暴发的潜在风险：可能会有多达50万人死亡，并造成数万亿美元的经济损失。美国卫生与公众服务部部长亚历克斯·阿扎等卫生官员和医学专家也多次警告疫情在美国暴发的危险。但美国政府不仅对各种警告置之不理，反而着重于控制信息传播，限制医学专家向公众发布疫情信息，甚至发布虚假信息误导民众，称新冠病毒是“大号流感”，感染病毒的风险和死亡率“非常低”，疫情会很快“奇迹般地消失”，导致防控疫情的“黄金窗口期”被白白浪费。更有甚者，包括时任美国国会参议院情报委员会主席的理查德·伯尔在内的多名国会议员，还涉嫌内幕交易丑闻——他们利用职务之便较早了解疫情严峻形势，却一边对公众淡化疫情风险，一边在疫情引发股市大跌之前抛售大量股票，上演“完美”避险。
Ignoring the Pandemic Warnings. According to the revisited timeline of the pandemic in the United States, which was released by The New York Times and Washington Post in April 2020, the U.S. government had repeatedly ignored the pandemic warnings and slacked off on pandemic control. In early January, the National Security Council (NSC) received intelligence reports predicting the spread of the virus in the United States. On January 29, Peter Navarro, Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy at the White House, laid out in striking detail the potential risks of a coronavirus pandemic: as many as half a million deaths and trillions of dollars in economic losses. U.S. health officials and medical experts, such as Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, also repeatedly warned of the deadly pandemic in the United States. Unfortunately, the U.S. government ignored these warnings. Instead, it focused on controlling the spreading of information, restricted medical experts’ freedom to release information on the pandemic to the public, and even published false information to mislead the public, such as calling the virus “a flu”, claiming that the virus has low infection and fatality rates, and saying that “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.” Under such circumstances, the “golden window” period for infectious disease prevention and control was wasted. Even then, many members of the U.S. Senate, including Richard Burr, who was the chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, were involved in insider trading scandals. They used their positions to understand the serious situation of the pandemic earlier, but they downplayed the risk of the pandemic in front of the public while selling a large number of stocks before the pandemic triggered a stock market crash. In this way, they had a “perfect hedge”.
优先考虑资本利益。《纽约时报》网站2020年4月13日报道，白宫新冠病毒应对工作组与国家安全委员会在2月14日就合作准备了一份题为《美国政府应对2019年新型冠状病毒的措施》的备忘录，其中明确建议采取包括“大幅限制公众集会规模，取消几乎所有体育赛事和表演，取消不能通过电话召开的公众和私人会议，考虑学校停课”等严格的疫情管制措施。然而决策层在听取相关措施将导致美国股市崩盘的判断后，立刻否决了该备忘录。可见美国政府在抗疫决策上在资本利益和人民利益之间进行了价值排序，并未把民众的生命权和健康权放在第一位，反而优先考虑资本市场的反应，导致政府既未对民众进行有效示警，也没有为疫情大流行所带来的潜在医疗资源消耗做准备，把美国民众推向感染和死亡的边缘。
Prioritizing Capital Interests. The website of The New York Times reported on April 13, 2020, that the White House COVID-19 Response Working Group and the NSC jointly prepared a memo dated February 14, which was titled “U.S. Government Response to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus.” According to the report, the memo documented drastic pandemic-control measures including: “significantly limiting public gatherings and cancellation of almost all sporting events, performances, and public and private meetings that cannot be convened by phone. Consider school closures.” Nevertheless, the decision-makers immediately rejected the memo after hearing that the measures would lead to the collapse of the U.S. stock market. This showed how the U.S. government prioritized capital interests and the response of the capital market, rather than making the people’s right to life and health a priority. Due to this, the U.S. government failed to give effective warnings to the public and failed to get prepared for the potential consumption of medical resources caused by the pandemic, bringing the American people to the brink of infection and death.
将抗疫问题政治化。疫情在美国暴发后，一些美国政客并不把保障人民的生命和健康作为首要任务，反而将疫情作为攻击政治对手的武器，谋求选举利益。权威医学杂志《柳叶刀》网站5月16日罕见地发表社论，直指美国的公共卫生领域受到政党政治的干预，美国疾病预防与控制中心的作用被一再削弱，美国政府不积极采取检测、追踪和隔离等基本医疗防疫措施，反而寄希望于“神奇的子弹”——包括疫苗、新药，甚至盼望病毒最终会“神奇消失”。美国著名政治学者弗朗西斯·福山5月4日在《国家利益》网站发表《美国政治腐朽的代价》一文，指出政党政治的高度极化使得政治制衡制度成为决策不可逾越的障碍；疫情大流行原本应该成为抛开分歧、展现团结的机会，却进一步加深了政治极化。政客将疫情视为攫取权力和党派利益的契机，而这却是以不计其数的美国普通民众的生命为代价的。
Politicizing the Anti-pandemic Endeavor. When the virus broke out in the United States, some U.S. politicians used it as a weapon to attack political opponents and seek election benefits instead of regarding the drive to protect the lives and health of their people as their top priority. The website of The Lancet, an authoritative medical journal, published an editorial on May 16, which was a rare case for the journal. The editorial explicitly pointed out the intervention of political parties in the public health sector of the United States, and the weakening role of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It criticized the U.S. government for not actively adopting basic medical and anti-pandemic measures such as detection, tracking, and isolation, placing its hopes on “magic bullets” such as vaccines and new drugs, and hoping that the virus would eventually “magically disappear”. On May 4, the famous U.S. political scientist Francis Fukuyama published the article The Wages of American Political Decay on the website The National Interest, pointing out that the highly polarized party politics made the political checks and balances an insurmountable obstacle to decision-making; that the pandemic, which should have been an opportunity to put aside differences and show unity, further deepened the political polarization. Politicians viewed the pandemic as an opportunity to seize power and partisan interests, and this came at the cost of the lives of countless American people.
导致灾难性后果。《纽约时报》网站2020年5月20日报道，美国哥伦比亚大学的研究显示，美国行动限制措施的延迟导致至少3.6万人付出生命：如果美国政府提前一星期实施行动限制措施，能够多挽救3.6万人的生命；而如果美国政府提前两星期就开始实施行动限制措施，美国83%死于新冠病毒的患者将幸免于难。《纽约时报》甚至在5月24日史无前例地用整个头版列出1000名新冠肺炎死者的姓名、年龄和身份，并在导语中写道：“这里列出的1000人仅占死者总数的1%。他们不仅是一个个名字，他们曾是我们当中的一员。”《时代》周刊网站5月20日报道，美国延迟采取社交疏离政策导致了90%的新冠死亡病例，付出如此多生命代价本质上是美国民主的失败。
Leading to Catastrophic Consequences. The website of The New York Times reported on May 20, 2020, that research by Columbia University of the United States showed that delays in adopting movement restrictions had caused at least 36,000 people to die. According to the research, if the U.S. government had adopted movement restrictions one week earlier, it could have saved 36,000 lives, and if the U.S. government had adopted movement restrictions two weeks earlier, 83 percent of the deaths from COVID-19 could have been avoided. On May 24, The New York Times unprecedentedly dedicated its entire front page to 1,000 U.S. COVID-19 victims. Their names, ages, and brief descriptions were listed under the headline “U.S. Deaths Near 100,000, an Incalculable Loss,” with a sub headline reading: “They Were Not Simply Names on a List. They Were Us.” The website of the Time reported on May 20 that the delayed social-distancing measures caused 90 percent of the deaths from COVID-19 in the United States, and observed that such a huge loss of life was essentially a failure of U.S. democracy.
二、美国社会的不平等在疫情中暴露无遗
2. Inequality within U.S. Society Being Fully Exposed during the Pandemic
在美国，无论自由派学者还是保守派学者，都赞同一个基本事实——美国社会存在严重的不平等。造成不平等的深层次制度原因在于，美国政府和政党长期被利益集团操纵和俘获，无法制定和实施促进社会公平的税收、产业和社保政策。面对此次疫情，美国社会在阶层和经济方面的不平等进一步暴露和加剧。
In the United States, both liberal and conservative scholars agree on one basic fact that there is stark inequality within U.S. society. The deep-seated institutional reason for such inequality is that the U.S. government and political parties have long been manipulated by interest groups, and are unable to formulate and implement tax, industrial, and social security policies that promote social equality. During the pandemic, the social and economic inequality within U.S. society has been exposed and exacerbated.
权贵阶层获得病毒检测特殊待遇。病毒感染不分贫富，但有限的检测和医疗资源却在美国无法得到公平配置。《纽约时报》网站2020年3月19日报道，美国众多权贵在各州检测设备短缺且自身无感染症状的情况下，难以言明地进行了病毒检测。急救医生乌切·布莱克斯托克颇感无奈地直言：“（医生）不得不给病人的新冠病毒检测定额，且必须等5到7天才能得到结果；而名人却可以轻松测试，并迅速拿到结果”。这种明显的不公平现象令民众愈发质疑：在医护人员和许多病人都无法得到诊断时，权贵阶层凭借特权获得优先检测是否意味着剥夺了普通人的检测机会。英国《卫报》网站3月21日刊文指出，“泰坦尼克号撞击冰山沉没的时候，妇女和儿童首先被保护和救助；但是在新冠病毒面前，美国却是富人和权势群体优先获救”。美国在新冠病毒检测上的“贫富差距”，凸显了其疫情防控系统的延误、混乱与不公正。
The Elite Class of the United States Being Specially Treated in Coronavirus Testing. Viral infection does not distinguish between rich and poor, but the limited testing and medical resources were not fairly allocated in the United States. The website of The New York Times reported on March 19, 2020, that many dignitaries in the United States somehow underwent virus testing when they had no signs of infection and when nearly every state in the country lacked testing equipment. Uche Blackstock, an emergency medicine physician, said frustratedly, “As a physician, I find it upsetting that celebrities and government officials without symptoms have been able to access testing quickly with same-day results, while I’ve had to ration out testing to my patients with turnaround times of five or seven days.” This obvious injustice has made the public increasingly raise questions. When medical staff and many patients cannot be diagnosed, whether the privileged class obtains priority testing means that the ordinary people are deprived of testing opportunities. The website of The Guardian, a British newspaper, published an article on March 21 and commented that when the Titanic hit the iceberg and sank, women and children were protected and rescued first, but in the face of COVID-19, the United States has first rescued the rich and powerful groups. The gap between rich and poor in getting the virus tests in the United States has exposed the slackness, confusion, and injustice in its pandemic prevention and control system.
底层民众面临更加危险的处境。疫情使美国底层民众的生存状况越来越艰难，进一步加深了社会贫富分化。根据哥伦比亚广播公司2019年的报道，近40%的美国人无法支付400美元的意外开支，有25%的美国人因为负担不起医疗费用而不得不放弃必要的治疗。美国《大西洋月刊》网站2020年4月报道，美国低收入人群患病后，“通常会延迟去看医生，不是因为他们不想康复，而是因为根本没有钱”。面对新冠肺炎疫情，美国有数千万人没有医疗保险，而新冠肺炎重症监护费用却高达数万美元。“生存还是毁灭”，并不只是文学作品中的生命哲学，也是美国底层民众面临的现实抉择。今日俄罗斯电视台4月30日报道，盖洛普公司的一项调查显示，七分之一的美国成年人表示，如果他们自己或家庭成员出现新冠肺炎相关症状，将因为担心负担不起治疗费用放弃治疗。联合国极端贫困与人权问题特别报告员菲利普·奥尔斯顿4月16日指出，美国穷人正受到新冠病毒的“最严重打击”，“由于长期的忽视和歧视，低收入和贫困人口面临着更高的受到冠状病毒侵害的风险，而一个混乱的、注重企业的联邦应对措施未能完全照顾到他们的利益”。
People at the Bottom of U.S. Society Facing an Increasingly Dangerous Situation. The pandemic has made the lives of people at the bottom of U.S. society increasingly difficult, and further intensified the social polarization between rich and poor. According to a CBS report in 2019, nearly 40 percent of Americans would struggle to cover a $400 emergency expense, and 25 percent of Americans skipped necessary medical care because they could not afford the cost. The website of The Atlantic reported in April 2020 that low-income people in the United States would usually delay seeing a doctor when they became ill, not because they did not want to recover, but because they had no money at all. Faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, tens of millions of people in the United States are not covered by medical insurance, when intensive care for COVID-19 costs as high as tens of thousands of dollars in the country. “To be or not to be” is not just a philosophical proposition of some literary work, but a realistic choice that the people at the bottom of U.S. society have to make. Russia Today reported on April 30 that a Gallup survey revealed that one in seven American adults said that if they or their family members developed symptoms related to COVID-19, they would probably give up medical treatment because they were worried that they could not afford the costs. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, pointed out on April 16 that the poor in the United States were “being hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic”. He observed, “Low-income and poor people face far higher risks from the coronavirus due to chronic neglect and discrimination, and a muddled, corporate-driven federal response has failed them.”
高失业率使工薪阶层陷入生存危机。根据美国劳工部2020年5月28日公布的数据，美国3月15日至5月23日累计首次申请失业救济人数达4080万。面对疫情带来的高失业率，由于长期贫富分化和结构性歧视，美国工薪阶层抵御风险的能力大大减弱。沃克斯新闻网4月10日报道指出，“从餐饮业、旅游业到媒体业，整个美国经济都感受到了（疫情的）影响。但是就像危机带来的其他影响一样，那些本已是最脆弱的群体也将首当其冲地受到经济影响”。“这段时间最容易遭受裁员的人正是那些薪水最低的人，例如餐饮业和零售业的低薪工人”。根据美国全国餐馆业协会4月20日发布的调查报告，受疫情影响，三分之二的餐厅工人（约800万人）因餐厅关闭已被解雇或休假。虽然美国政府也推出了旨在援助中小企业的“薪资保护计划”，但一些资金较充裕的大企业却利用规则漏洞趁机获得巨额贷款，而一些亟需贷款“续命”的小企业、小商铺却无法得到救助。上述调查报告显示，至少有60%的经营者表示，现有的联邦政府救济计划不会令他们减少裁员。可见，美国工薪阶层最早体验到疫情带来的经济衰退的痛感，成为美国政府低效抗疫举措的牺牲品。
High Unemployment Rates Leading the Working Class into a Crisis of Survival. According to data released by the U.S. Department of Labor on May 28, 2020, the cumulative number of Americans applying for unemployment relief from March 15 to May 23 has for the first time reached 40.8 million. Given the high unemployment rate brought about by the pandemic and the long-existing structural discrimination and polarization between rich and poor, the U.S. working class’s ability to resist risks has greatly diminished. Vox News reported on April 10 that from the catering industry and tourism to the media industry, the entire U.S. economy has felt the impact of the pandemic, and just like the impact of other crises, the most vulnerable groups bore the brunt of the economic impact. According to the report, during the pandemic, the people who are most vulnerable amid layoffs are those who earn the lowest salaries, such as low-wage workers in the catering and retail industries. According to the report released by the National Restaurant Association on April 20, two-thirds of restaurant workers (about 8 million people) have been dismissed or put on vacation due to the pandemic. When the U.S. government launched the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was intended to help small- and medium-sized enterprises, some large companies with sufficient funds took advantage of the rule loopholes to acquire huge loans, but small businesses and small shops that urgently needed loans to sustain themselves could not get the help. The above-mentioned report also showed that at least 60 percent of employers said that the existing relief plan of the federal government could not help them reduce layoffs. All this has revealed that the U.S. working class was the first to feel the pain of the economic recession brought about by the pandemic, and became the victims of the U.S. government’s inefficient anti-pandemic measures.
三、美国的种族歧视在疫情中愈演愈烈
3. Racial Discrimination Being Intensified within the United States during the Pandemic
系统性种族歧视是美国社会的痼疾。2016年以来，美国白人至上主义回潮，种族歧视呈愈演愈烈之势。新冠肺炎疫情带来的社会紧张情绪，特别是有限抗疫资源配置的不均等，进一步加深了美国“主流社会”对亚裔、非洲裔和拉美裔等少数种族的歧视。
The systemic racial discrimination is a chronic illness of U.S. society. Since 2016, white supremacy has revived and racial discrimination has intensified in the United States. Social tensions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially the unequal allocation of limited anti-pandemic resources, have further deepened mainstream society’s discrimination against minorities, such as Asian, African, and Hispanic Americans.
亚裔群体遭受严重的污名化攻击。英国《卫报》网站2020年4月1日报道指出，“（美国社会）对亚洲人的刻板印象从未消除”，一些美国媒体在报道新冠肺炎病例时都附有亚洲人面孔的照片。《纽约时报》网站4月16日报道指出，“新冠病毒肆虐期间，在美国身为亚裔是一种非常孤独的感觉”。疫情暴发以来，亚裔美国人在公共场合遭受羞辱甚至攻击的事件比比皆是。一些美国政客对此更是有意误导。在世界卫生组织将新冠病毒正式命名为“COVID－19”后，包括国务卿蓬佩奥在内的美国政府高层仍然坚持使用“中国病毒”“武汉病毒”的说法，甚至遭致国际社会强烈批评后也拒不改口。联合国当代形式种族主义问题特别报告员滕达伊·阿丘梅3月23日和4月21日先后指出，有关国家政客主动发表公开或暗示性的仇外言论，使用别有用心的名称来替代新冠病毒，这种把特定疾病与某个具体国家或民族相联系的仇外表达不负责任、令人不安。“这一波‘疫情歧视’将原本较为隐蔽的种族偏见彻底揭示出来，在全球大流行的背景下暴露得越发明显”。在自诩为“自由灯塔”的美国，政府官员公然煽动、引导和纵容种族歧视，无异于对现代人权观念的悍然羞辱。
Asian Americans Suffering from Stigmatization. The website of The Guardian, a British newspaper, pointed out on April 1, 2020 that stereotyping of Asian Americans still happens in the United States, and when reporting on the COVID-19 situation, some U.S. media always attach photos of Asian faces. The website of The New York Times observed on April 16 that the COVID-19 pandemic meant isolation for Asian Americans. Since the outbreak of the virus, Asian Americans have often been humiliated and even attacked in public places. Some U.S. politicians even deliberately misled the public. After the World Health Organization officially named the new coronavirus “COVID-19”, senior U.S. leaders, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, still insisted on referring to the virus as the “Chinese virus” or “Wuhan virus”. They also refused to correct that mistake even after being strongly criticized by the international community. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Tendayi Achiume, pointed out on March 23 and April 21 that politicians of relevant countries proactively expressed xenophobic opinions or made xenophobic implications by deliberately replacing COVID-19 with other names that linked this particular disease to a particular country or nation, which was an irresponsible and disturbing expression. The current pandemic-related discrimination has fully exposed the once-concealed racial prejudice. In the United States, which bills itself as the “beacon of freedom”, government officials blatantly incite, guide, and condone racial discrimination, which is tantamount to humiliating the modern concept of human rights.
非洲裔和拉美裔在疫情中承受巨大的种族不平等。种族歧视深深植根于美国的历史与现实之中，而新冠肺炎疫情就像一面放大镜，将种族歧视带来的恶果以更加悲剧的形式呈现出来。非洲裔受到新冠肺炎疫情“不成比例”影响的状况极为普遍。密歇根州卫生与公共服务部2020年4月2日公布的该州新冠肺炎确诊和死亡病例种族构成数据显示，非洲裔仅占该州总人口的12%，却占确诊病例的33%，死亡病例占比更高达40%。美国疾病预防与控制中心公布的全国性统计数据显示，截至5月13日，美国新冠肺炎致死病例中非洲裔占22.4%，明显高于其在总人口中12.5%的份额。堪萨斯州、伊利诺伊州和密苏里州的非洲裔分别仅占总人口的5.7%、14.1%、11.6%，在死亡病例中占比却分别高达29.7%、30.3%和35.1%。拉美裔在疫情中也遭致更高的感染率和致死率。根据纽约市4月初公布的新冠肺炎死亡病例种族分布，拉美裔占34%。《纽约时报》网站4月14日报道指出，非洲裔和拉美裔的感染率和死亡率之所以居高不下，是因为“今天他们在健康上的差距，直接来自于历史上财富和机会的不平等”。英国《金融时报》网站5月15日报道指出，非洲裔和拉美裔美国人比白人更有可能从事维持社会运行所必需的工作，他们贫困率较高，更容易患糖尿病和高血压等“共病”，使得他们更易感染新冠病毒。“这场大流行病加剧了美国的种族差异”，“没有什么比这场大封锁中的生与死更能体现美国的肤色差异了”。5月25日，明尼苏达州非洲裔男子乔治·弗洛伊德遭白人警察暴力执法致死，引发美国全国范围的大规模抗议示威活动，再次凸显美国民众对于种族不平等日益恶化的不满与愤怒。
African and Hispanic Americans Falling Victims to Severe Racial Inequality. Racial discrimination is deeply rooted in the history and reality of the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic has put this issue underneath a magnifying glass and tragically exposed its negative consequences. African Americans across the country are infected with and die from COVID-19 at a disproportionately higher rate than any other group in the United States. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) released a racial breakdown of the state’s confirmed COVID-19 cases and COVID-19 deaths on April 2, 2020, which showed that African Americans, who make up only 12 percent of Michigan’s population, accounted for 33 percent of Michigan’s confirmed COVID-19 cases and 40 percent of the state’s COVID-19 deaths. National statistics released by the CDC showed that as of May 13, African Americans accounted for 22.4 percent of deaths from COVID-19 in the United States. This percentage is significantly higher than the African Americans’ 12.5 percent share of the total U.S. population. African Americans in Kansas, Illinois, and Missouri accounted for only 5.7 percent, 14.1 percent, and 11.6 percent of the total population of the states, respectively, but accounted for 29.7 percent, 30.3 percent, and 35.1 percent of these states’ deaths from COVID-19. Hispanic Americans also have disproportionately higher infection and fatality rates during the pandemic. In early April, New York City released a racial breakdown of the city’s deaths from COVID-19. According to it, Hispanic Americans accounted for 34 percent of the city’s fatal cases of COVID-19. The website of The New York Times pointed out on April 14 that the fact the pandemic infected and killed African and Hispanic Americans at disproportionately higher rates was the result of a health gap directly created by the historical inequality of wealth and opportunities. The website of the Financial Times, a British newspaper, pointed out on May 15 that African Americans and Hispanic Americans were more likely than whites to perform the work that was necessary for the maintenance of social operations, making them more susceptible to poverty, diabetes, high blood pressure, and COVID-19. The report also pointed out that this pandemic exacerbated the racial differences in the United States, and that nothing could better display the difference in skin color in the United States than the life and death stories in the pandemic shutdown. On May 25, George Floyd, an African-American man from Minnesota, died after a white police officer pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for several minutes during his arrest. This led to large-scale protests and demonstrations across the United States, once again exposing the dissatisfaction and anger that the American people have for the worsening racial inequality.
种族主义暴力事件频发多发。疫情期间，美国基于种族主义的暴力事件频发，亚裔群体遭受严重的人身攻击。仅2020年3月19日至4月1日，美国非盈利组织“停止仇恨亚裔”就收到超过1100起仇恨事件报告。2020年2月，洛杉矶一名16岁亚裔男孩在学校被诬称为“病毒携带者”遭到殴打。3月14日，在得克萨斯州米德兰市一家超市里，一名19岁男子故意用刀刺伤一名亚裔男子和其两名年幼的子女，理由是“他们是中国人并将新冠病毒传染给别人”。4月5日，纽约市布鲁克林区一名亚裔女性在家门口倒垃圾时，遭到种族主义分子泼洒不明化学液体攻击，导致其上半身、面部和手部严重烧伤。暴力事件进一步加剧了疫情期间紧张的社会气氛，社会分裂、种族对立和枪支泛滥随之恶化。4月15日，近200位美国外交政策学者、前外交官在《今日美国报》上发表声明指出，针对亚裔的仇恨犯罪和暴力袭击为美国敲响了警钟，美国各层级、各领域的领导人应采取行动，反对针对亚裔的种族主义行为，结束对亚裔社区的仇恨犯罪。
Frequent Racist Violence. During the pandemic, racist violence has haunted the United States, and Asian Americans suffer from venomous personal attacks. From March 19 to April 1, 2020, alone, the U.S. nonprofit organization “Stop AAPI Hate” received more than 1,100 reports of hate incidents. In February 2020, a 16-year-old Asian boy in Los Angeles was accused of being a “virus carrier” and viciously beaten at school. On March 14, in a supermarket in Midland, Texas, a 19-year-old man deliberately stabbed an Asian man and his two young children with a knife on the ground that “they were Chinese and were spreading the novel coronavirus to others.” On April 5, an Asian woman in Brooklyn, New York City, was attacked by a racist who spilled unidentified chemical liquid on her to severely burn her upper body, face, and hands when she was emptying rubbish at her door. Violent incidents have further exacerbated the social tension during the pandemic, and problems such as a divisive society, racial divide, and the proliferation of guns have worsened. On April 15, nearly 200 U.S. foreign policy scholars and former diplomats jointly issued a statement in USA Today, pointing out that hate crimes and violent attacks against Asian Americans sounded the alarm for the United States, and that leaders at all levels and in all sectors should take action to oppose racism against Asians and end hate crimes against Asian communities.
