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2016年考研英語閱讀材料:Race in America
RIOTS are rarely so widely anticipated. By 8pm on November 24th, when the prosecutor in Ferguson, Missouri, announced the grand jury's decision not to charge a police officer with a crime for shooting an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, cops in riot gear were already in place and barriers surrounded municipal buildings. Mr Brown's parents and Barack Obama called for calm. Yet soon America's TV screens were full of burning police cars, crowds coughing on tear gas, and young black men throwing bricks and smashing shops. America's history of racial injustice looked as potent as ever.
That would be the wrong conclusion to draw. Looking back at the riots in Los Angeles in 1992 that followed the acquittal of four white police officers who had savagely beaten a black motorist, Rodney King, a lot has changed. America has a black president. The LA riots, which left 53 dead, happened in one of America's great cities, and sparked violence in others. This time the focus was a struggling suburb; in Los Angeles black teenagers protested peacefully alongside white ones.
Blacks plainly still suffer prejudice across America: they account for 86% of the vehicle stops made by police in Ferguson. But America's race problem is increasingly one of class. Blacks' biggest problem is now poverty, which is most visible in places such as Ferguson. Like many post-war suburbs across America, Ferguson is stuck between the prosperous white exurbs of St Louis and the city's somewhat revitalized centre. In 1990 its population was three-quarters white; by 2010, it had become two-thirds black. The sub-prime mortgage crisis hit it hard. Many of its homeowners still owe more than they own.
Solving the problems of places like Ferguson is less about passing more anti-discrimination laws than about rekindling economic growth and spreading the proceeds. But there are also ways of making politics and policing work better that would contribute greatly to racial harmony in America.
Ferguson's political institutions have not kept up with its demography. Of the city's six-member council, five are white. The hapless mayor, James Knowles, is a white Republican who was re-elected in 2013 in an election in which fewer than one in eight eligible voters turned out. He is in charge of the police force, in which three out of 53 officers are black. Such disparities feed the belief―held by blacks across the country―that both justice and law-enforcement systems are racist.
Police brutality reinforces that belief. If there was one lesson from the attack on Rodney King, it was that police officers should behave like civilians, not an occupying army. Around 500 people were killed last year by the police―though since nobody counts, nobody really knows.
In Ferguson, bad policies help to explain why distrust turns to anger. Take, for example, the way the town is financed. In 2013 a fifth of Ferguson's general revenues―some $2.6m, in a city of 21,000 people―were derived from fines and asset confiscation. That is equivalent to $124 a year for every man, woman and child in the city. Paying fines, even for minor traffic offences, can involve queuing for hours. Those who miss court dates can be jailed until they pay, accumulating more fines along the way. Slowly but surely, the justice system has become an elaborate mechanism for criminalising poverty.
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人們通常很難預測什么時候會發(fā)生暴動。11月24日晚8點，當密蘇里州弗格森市的檢察官宣布大陪審團的決定：不起訴向手無寸鐵的黑人青年Michael Brown開槍的警察，穿戴了防暴裝備的警察已經整裝待命，并在市政大樓周圍安置圍欄。Brown的父母和奧巴馬總統(tǒng)要求雙方冷靜。然而很快地，美國各大電視的屏幕上都播放了燃燒的警車、人群在催淚彈中咳嗽、黑人青年投擲磚塊砸爛商店。美國少數(shù)族裔難求公正的歷史似乎又再一次清晰地展現(xiàn)在世界面前。
這種結論是錯誤的?；仡?992年發(fā)生在洛杉磯的暴亂，起因是4個白人警察殘忍地毆打了一個黑人摩托車手Rodney King，自此之后很多事情都改變了。美國有了黑人總統(tǒng)。這起暴亂發(fā)生在美國最大的城市之一洛杉磯，導致了53人死亡，暴力也蔓延到了其他城市。這一次焦點落在了麻煩不斷的市郊;洛杉磯事件中黑人青年和白人一起和平地進行示威活動。
很明顯黑人在美國忍受著偏見：弗格森市86%被警察叫停的汽車都是黑人駕駛。但是美國的種族問題日益突出遠不止如此。黑人現(xiàn)在最大的問題是貧困，這一點在像弗格森市這種地方很明顯。和其他戰(zhàn)后的美國市郊一樣，弗格森市被夾在繁榮富裕的圣路易斯白人遠郊社區(qū)與或多或少獲得振興的市中心之間。1990年，該市人口有四分之三是白人;到了2010年，黑人已經占了三分之二。次貸危機給它帶來的打擊是沉重的。很多房主仍然資不抵債。
解決弗格森市問題的方法不在于實施更多反歧視法案，而應該重新振興經濟增長并增加居民收入。但也有一些更好的安保工作方法能促進美國的種族和諧。
弗格森市的政治制度并沒有跟上其人口的發(fā)展。市政委員6個人中有5個是白人。James Knowles這個倒霉的市長是個白人共和黨員，在2013年的一次投票參與率不到八分之一的選舉中再次當選的。他掌管市區(qū)警力，其中53個警官中只有3個是黑人。如此的不平衡讓全美境內的黑人都相信――不管是司法系統(tǒng)還是執(zhí)法系統(tǒng)都是種族歧視的。
警方的野蠻行為也加劇了這種觀念。如果說能從Rodney King事件中學到什么教訓的話，應該就是警察應該像一個市民而非一個占領軍人。去年大約有500人被警察殺死――盡管自此之后沒有人再統(tǒng)計過，也沒有人真的知道。
在弗格森市，錯誤的政策導致不信任演變成憤怒。比如該鎮(zhèn)的財政政策。2013年，擁有21000人口的弗格森市五分之一的財政收入――約260萬美元，是來自于罰款和不動產收繳，相當于人均124美元，無論男女還是兒童都包括在內。即便是為最輕微的交通違規(guī)支付罰款也要排數(shù)小時的隊。那些算錯了日子的人可能會被關起來直到交錢為止，期間還會累積更多的罰款。越來越肯定的是，司法系統(tǒng)已經成為一個為懲罰因貧犯罪的人們而精心設置的體系。
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