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2016年考研英语阅读材料: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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人们通常很难预测什么时候会发生暴动。11月24日晚8点，当密苏里州弗格森市的检察官宣布大陪审团的决定：不起诉向手无寸铁的黑人青年Michael Brown开枪的警察，穿戴了防暴装备的警察已经整装待命，并在市政大楼周围安置围栏。Brown的父母和奥巴马总统要求双方冷静。然而很快地，美国各大电视的屏幕上都播放了燃烧的警车、人群在催泪弹中咳嗽、黑人青年投掷砖块砸烂商店。美国少数族裔难求公正的历史似乎又再一次清晰地展现在世界面前。
这种结论是错误的。回顾1992年发生在洛杉矶的暴乱，起因是4个白人警察残忍地殴打了一个黑人摩托车手Rodney King，自此之后很多事情都改变了。美国有了黑人总统。这起暴乱发生在美国最大的城市之一洛杉矶，导致了53人死亡，暴力也蔓延到了其他城市。这一次焦点落在了麻烦不断的市郊;洛杉矶事件中黑人青年和白人一起和平地进行示威活动。
很明显黑人在美国忍受着偏见：弗格森市86%被警察叫停的汽车都是黑人驾驶。但是美国的种族问题日益突出远不止如此。黑人现在最大的问题是贫困，这一点在像弗格森市这种地方很明显。和其他战后的美国市郊一样，弗格森市被夹在繁荣富裕的圣路易斯白人远郊社区与或多或少获得振兴的市中心之间。1990年，该市人口有四分之三是白人;到了2010年，黑人已经占了三分之二。次贷危机给它带来的打击是沉重的。很多房主仍然资不抵债。
解决弗格森市问题的方法不在于实施更多反歧视法案，而应该重新振兴经济增长并增加居民收入。但也有一些更好的安保工作方法能促进美国的种族和谐。
弗格森市的政治制度并没有跟上其人口的发展。市政委员6个人中有5个是白人。James Knowles这个倒霉的市长是个白人共和党员，在2013年的一次投票参与率不到八分之一的选举中再次当选的。他掌管市区警力，其中53个警官中只有3个是黑人。如此的不平衡让全美境内的黑人都相信――不管是司法系统还是执法系统都是种族歧视的。
警方的野蛮行为也加剧了这种观念。如果说能从Rodney King事件中学到什么教训的话，应该就是警察应该像一个市民而非一个占领军人。去年大约有500人被警察杀死――尽管自此之后没有人再统计过，也没有人真的知道。
在弗格森市，错误的政策导致不信任演变成愤怒。比如该镇的财政政策。2013年，拥有21000人口的弗格森市五分之一的财政收入――约260万美元，是来自于罚款和不动产收缴，相当于人均124美元，无论男女还是儿童都包括在内。即便是为最轻微的交通违规支付罚款也要排数小时的队。那些算错了日子的人可能会被关起来直到交钱为止，期间还会累积更多的罚款。越来越肯定的是，司法系统已经成为一个为惩罚因贫犯罪的人们而精心设置的体系。
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