Racial discrimination is the most serious human rights problem in the United States, a problem that the United States has never resolved since its founding. The United States, as a matter of fact, was notorious for genocide against aboriginal Indians, trade of African blacks and black slavery. In recent years, scandals of racial discrimination have occurred, one after another.

On April 7, 2001, a white police officer shot to death an unarmed black youth in Cincinnati, Ohio, as he was trying to run away after breaking traffic rules. Black people in the city staged mass protests following the death of Timothy Thomas, which culminated in a racial conflict. The incident once again aroused worldwide attention to the problem of racial discrimination in the United States. According to the Observer of Britain published on April 15, 2001, Cincinnati is one of the eight large cities in the United States where the problem of racial discrimination is most serious. Even though the world is already in the 21st century, racial segregation is still practiced by virtually all schools in the city. Timothy Thomas was the fourth black person killed by white police in succession from November 2000 to April 2001, and the 15th black suspect killed by white police in the same city since 1995. It is beyond people's comprehension that during the same period, killing of white suspects by the police never occurred. According to the Associated Press, the mass protests in Cincinnati matched those that broke out after the killing of Martin Luther King.

Racial discrimination is discernible everywhere in the United States. The proportion of federal government posts taken by ethnic minority Americans is much smaller than the proportion of their population in the national total. According to an article in the July-August issue of the bimonthly World Economic Review, of the 535 senators and Congress men and women, those of Latin-American origin with voting rights number only 19, or 3.5 percent of the total, even though ethnic Latin-Americans account for 12.5 percent of the country's total population. Blacks account for 13 percent of the American population, but are able to win only 5 percent of the public posts through election. There are legal provisions to the effect that colored people must account for a certain percentage in the police force. The true fact, however, is that few black people are able to join the police force and even fewer serve as senior police officers. Take for example Cincinnati. Black people account for 43 percent of the local population but, of the 1,000 members of the local police force, only 250 are blacks. None of the CEOs and presidents of the top 500 companies in the Unites States are blacks. Blacks holding senior posts at Wall Street investment companies are rare, if any.

Social conditions are bad for ethnic minority Americans. According to the 2000 population census, blacks unable to enjoy medical insurance are twice as many as whites. Only 17 percent of the black population are able to finish higher education, in contrast to 28 percent for whites. The unemployment rate was twice as high for blacks as for whites. Meanwhile, blacks employed for menial service jobs are more than twice as many. Incomes for the average white family averaged 44,366 US dollars in 1999. For an average black family, however, the figure was 25,000 US dollars. According to statistics provided by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Committee, the number of employed ethnic minority Americans has increased by 36 percent since 1990, but the number of charges against racial or ethnical harassment at work-sites has doubled, averaging 9,000 a year. Of the five largest dumps of harmful wastes, three are in residential areas inhabited mainly by blacks and other ethnic minority Americans. Up to 60 percent of the blacks and ethnic Latin-Americans are living in places where harmful wastes are dumped.

Racial discrimination is frequently seen in America's judicature. Half of the 2 million prison inmates are blacks, and ethnic Latin-Americans account for 16 percent of the total. According to an investigative report published by the United Nations, for the same crime the penalty meted out against the colored can be twice or even thrice as severe as against the white. Blacks sentenced to death for killing whites are four times as many as whites given death penalty for killing blacks. The US Department of Justice reported on March 12, 2001 that threats by the police with force against blacks and ethnic Latin-Americans are twice as possible as against whites.