Forty years have elapsed since late civil rights leader Martin Luther King made the famous speech "I Have a Dream", yet the equalrights pursued by the American blacks and minority ethnic groups remained an unattainable dream today.

Racial discrimination in the United States has a long history with age-old malpractice. It has been permeated into every aspectsof society. According to an investigative report released by the United Nations, the blacks and colored people received twice or three times more severe penalties than the whites for the crimes of the same kind; the number of black people who received death penalty for killing white people was four times that of the white people for killing black people. In state prisons nationwide, about 47 percent of the inmates were black people, and the 16 percent were people of Latin American ancestry. The blacks accounted for 13 percent of the total US population, yet 35 percent of the people arrested for drug abuse crimes were blacks and 53 percent of the people that were convicted for drug abuse crimes were blacks.

At present, more than 750,000 black inmates were in US jails, or over 35 percent of the total number of inmates in the country; approximately 2 million black people were disciplined or put undervarious forms of surveillance; 22 percent of black males in the 30-34 age group had jail records, while the white inmates only make up three percent; 36 of 1,000 black females have possibilities of being jailed in their lives, while only five of 1,000 white females have such a possibility.

The poverty rate and joblessness rate of the US blacks remained high. According to statistics of the US Department of Labor, the white people's unemployment rate in the U.S. was 5.2 percent in November 2003, while the rate was as high as 10.2 percent for the blacks, almost twice that of the whites (Employment Status of the Civilian Population by Race, Sex, and Age, www.bls.gov/news.release/empgit.to2.htm, 05/12/2003).

According to statistics of the US Census Bureau, poverty rate among the blacks reached 24.1 percent in 2002, up 1.4 percentage points over the 22.7 percent rate in the previous year; 20.2 percent of the blacks were without health insurance; average annual income of median black families was 40 percent less than the ordinary median US families (see USA Today on Oct. 3, 2003).

Racial discrimination exists on the US real estate market, too.In 2002, the US federal government received a total of 25,246 discrimination accusations on housing market, 72 percent of which were from the families of black people, disabled people or those families with children, according to a report released by the National Fair Housing Alliance in April 2003. Discrimination over the birth place nationality of house purchasers rose from 10 percent in 2001 to 12 percent in 2002 (see the Sun newspaper, USA on Aug. 17, 2003). Black people usually spend more money than white people on housing purchase, but their houses are not as goodas those of white people and they have to accept loans with higherinterests. The market value of houses bought by black people with same amount of money is only 82 percent of those of white people, and houses with high mortgage interest rate in black people communities are five times more than those in white people communities, the Sun newspaper quoted the US Department of Housing and Urban Development as saying in on July 3, 2003.

Apartheid recurs at school. More than one third of American students of the African origin are studying in schools where over 90 percent of students are non-white people, according to an investigation made by Harvard University in 2004. Since 1988, manyschools abandoned the compulsory racial integration in class due to a series of court verdicts and changes in federal policies. According to a verdict passed in 1991 by the Supreme Court, the resumption of community schools was allowed and it was no longer mandatory to carry black students from other communities by schoolbus, which led to the disappearance of black students in white people's schools. Meanwhile, wealthy white people in some southernareas withdrew from publicly-owned school systems and sent their kids to private schools where most students were white. Racial differentiation in US middle and elementary schools is serious, noted a commentary of the New York Times on Jan. 21, 2003. Those black students in schools where most are white students often feelunwelcome, discriminated or even scared (The New York Times on Jan.21, 2003).

Less proportion of colored races can go to universities than white people. According to a report issued by the America Council on Education in Oct. 2003, 40 percent of black people and 34 percent of Hispanic-Americans of the age group from 18 to 24 can go to university, while 46 percent of white people can go to university www.accnet.edu/news/press_release/2003/10october/minority_report. cfm).

According to the census result in March 2003, the income of black people with bachelor degree was 24.5 percent lower than white people with same degree, that of black people with master degree 21.2 percent lower than white people with same degree, and that of black people with doctoral degree 28.1 percent lower than white people (see USA Today on Sept. 9, 2003).

The US discrimination toward immigrants tends to become serious.After the Sept. 11 incident, the US congress adopted anti-terrorism act containing items infringing on human rights. The actpermits the arrest of immigrants with indefinite duration, checks on all secret files, inspection in public and private occasions, wiretapping of phone conversations and secret investigations. In June 2003, US Procurator-General Glenn Fine revealed in his investigative report that after the Sept. 11 incident, US authorities detained 762 foreign immigrants for an average of about three months in excuse of violation of immigrant law, but later investigation showed they had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 incident (see Washington Post on June 3, 2003).

In the Operation Landmark launched in Chicago from Dec. 2002 toMay 2003, the backgrounds of some staff working in public places such as airports and high-rises were surveyed secretly, with some immigrants being detained and deported without criminal acts, and the government refused to publicize any details of this special policy toward immigrants and information about the detainment and deportation of immigrants. According to the report, this kind of "secret policing" activity in excuse of national security infringedon the civil rights and freedom of millions of immigrants in the United States (see Los Angeles Times on May 29, 2003).

Another report shows that 1,200 immigrants were detained in the United States with no indictment, and at least 484 people are still in custody. To date, the US government still refuses to reveal the identity of these people (see a report by Britain's Independent newspaper on June 26, 2003).

Immigrant children are maltreated. According to a report from the Amnesty International, at least 5,000 children going to the United States to find relatives, or avoid abuses and mistreatment,wars and recruiting by domestic rebels were put into custody in the United States. These children were jailed together with adult inmates, and were abused in ways of frisk by being unclothed, handcuffed and flogged. These children aged one to ten years from all over the world were often imprisoned for months, or even for years. A kid jailed in a detention center in Pennsylvania was beaten up for minor faults such as saying "Can I use the toilet" instead of "May I use the toilet." Staffs in a detention house in Texas will take back blankets and mattress and switch off air-conditioners just because children make faults (Reuters dispatch from Miami on June 18, 2003). The United States reportedly jailed a number of prisoners regarded as illegal fighters, three of whom were 13 to 15 years of age (see Britain's Guardian newspaper on April 24, 2003).