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Americans suffer from institutionalized racism: Analyst

375595_Ferguson-protestPeople in the United States are suffering from ‘institutionalized racism’ and the rise of violence in the country, an analyst tells Press TV.

“America is full of institutionalized racism. The proof is that Afro-Americans come [at the] bottom of statistics for health, housing, education and unemployment. But they come top of the statistics for being shot whilst unarmed,” Rodney Shakespeare, a professor of economy from London, told Press TV in an interview on Saturday.

He added that the situation in the United States is getting worse “because the poor as a whole in America, really white or black, are viewed as being subhuman and therefore they can be killed.”

The commentator was referring to the shooting dead of 18-year-old Michael Brown by US police in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9, that triggered violent protests in the city.

Protests against racial discrimination against blacks and other communities were also held in dozens of other cities and towns across the United States.

The protesters criticized the police for killing the unarmed black teenager and called for an end to racial killings.

Shakespeare also told Press TV that the US government “now has sniper rifles and for heaven’s sake it even has tanks.”

“It is racism, yes, institutionalized, plus a culture which it says that the poor are subhuman. Therefore, put those together, any sort of violence will now end up being justified. I can tell you now, whoever shot that young man will not face a prison sentence,” the analyst said, adding, “The American culture is now one of the government using violence to forward its ends, whether those are domestic or whether they are foreign.”

Shakespeare concluded that the election of US President Barack Obama did not help end racism in the United States.

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