News / Interviews

Racism against blacks ‘deeply rooted’ in US political system: Analyst

Tuesday, 20 June 2017 6:19 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 21 June 2017 11:41 AM ]

US police brutality

The culture of racism against African Americans is “deeply rooted” in the US political system, with a long history going back to the era of slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries, a black journalist in Detroit says.

Racism “has a long history; it's rooted in slavery; it continued after the Civil War,” said Abayomi Azikiwe, editor at the Pan-African News Wire.

“This is deeply rooted in US political and state apparatus and there has to be some fundamental changes in the United States before there’s going to be any real improvement,” Azikiwe said in a phone interview with Press TV on Tuesday.

The use of excessive force by police against African Americans in cities across the US has sparked nationwide protests in the past several years and has given birth to a movement called "Black Lives Matter."

Racial disparities in police officers’ treatment of black citizens have been well-documented.

Read More:

A study published Monday by a group of researchers at Stanford University in California indicates that police officers are significantly less respectful and consistently ruder toward black motorists during routine traffic stops than they are toward white drivers.

“Based on what we know from other research, there are police-community tensions all over the country,” said Jennifer Eberhardt, a psychology professor at Stanford University who co-authored the report. “You might imagine that those tensions would make their way into the language that people are using with one another.”

On Friday, a police officer in Minnesota was cleared of all charges in the 2016 shooting death of Philando Castile, an African American man who was killed in his car in front of his fiancee and her four-year-old daughter.

The jury’s decision to clear the officer has sparked protests in several cities.

On Sunday, police in Seattle, Washington, killed a pregnant African American woman while responding to her call about a crime.

According to a statement by Seattle police, the mother-of-four was "armed with a knife" and "confronted" two officers who were investigating her phone call.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk