❖ The continued existence of poverty in a generally affluent American society raises serious moral questions—and inevitably creates fierce confliction of interest and many political controversies.
被剥夺了最基本的民权和自由)
美国黑人
❖ Afro-American ❖ African American ❖ Negro ❖ Black
---the black “underclass” (“最低层”黑人)
❖ 《---The Northern states had all outlawed (废 除) slavery by 1830, but in the Southern states, it was ended by the Civil War Lincoln’s emancipation of slaves in 1863
Poverty
❖ By many standards the United States is the most favorably wealthy society in history. Yet, 35.9 million people, about 12.5% of Americans are living at or below the official poverty line, on incomes that the federal government considers insufficient to meet basic requirement of food, clothing, and shelter.
I. Racial Problems
---Americans are primarily a nation
of immigrants
❖ ---1. some as refugees from religious and political persecution (逃避宗教和政治迫害的难民)
❖ ---2. some as adventurers from the Old World seeking a better life(从旧大陆来寻求好生活的冒险家)
SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN THE UNITED STATES
Social Problems in the United States
Racial Problems
Poverty
Drug Abuse
Crime
The Abuse of Power by Government and Corporations
Drug Abuse
❖ Drug abuse in the United States has come to be regarded as one of the most challenging social problems facing the nation.
❖ Drug abuse in the United States is a social problem because it has a wide range of social costs, or dysfunctions.
❖ （制度化的种族歧视使黑人只能干一些收入 最低的工作。）
Dr. Martin Luther King “I Have a Dreamghts Movement in the 1950s and 1960s helped black people secure many of the rights promised in the Constitution. A 1954 Supreme Court decision ruled that segregation had no place in public school. In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus for a white man. Finally, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to stop discrimination in all public places.
neighborhoods in night. ❖ 45%of the population is afraid to walk alone
at night near their own homes.
❖ 47% own gun, largely for self-protection.
Crime
❖The profile of a typical criminal
❖ Racial tension
Particularly since the civil rights demonstrations, ghetto riots, and other unrest in the 1960s, race and ethnic relations have been a major preoccupation of social scientists, politicians and the general public.
在美国社会长期存在的种族冲突）
Racial Problems
❖ The United States was founded on the principle of human equality, but in practice the nation has fallen far short of that ideal.
❖ ---5. some wanting greater educational opportunities
❖ Though people all share a common American culture, the nation contains many racial and ethnic subcultures with their own distinctive characteristics. (虽然人们有共同的美
Poverty
❖ The problem of poverty in the United States is aggravated because it occurs in a society in which the overall distribution of wealth and income is very unequal.
❖ The affluent majority sometimes seems indifferent to the problems of the poorest section of the population.
❖ Poverty in the United States does not simply mean that the poor do not live quite as well as other citizens. Poverty can also mean low self-esteem, despair, and stunting of human potential.
国文化，但美利坚民族包含了许多种族和少数民族 的亚文化群)。
❖ These differences have contributed to racial conflicts that have been a persistent social problem to American society.（这些差异造成了
higher rate of arrests
❖ Reasons: ❖ 1. poor or unemployed ❖ 2. racial prejudice (the discrimination
between blank and white). ❖ 3. undereducated ❖ 4.selective law enforcement(执法偏见）.
(典型的罪犯形象)
Those arrested for crimes are disproportionately likely to be male, young, a member of a racial minority, and a city resident.
Members of racial groups have a disproportionately
Drug’s Dysfunctions
❖ 1. Crime ❖ 2. Automobile Accidents ❖ 3. Effects on Individuals ❖ 4. Economic Losses
: Threat to the young
Crime
❖ Crime is one of the most serious problems facing the nation.
❖ (1863年林肯颁布的《解放黑奴宣言》) and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865
（1865年美国通过的第13条宪法修正案）
❖ ---But after the abolition of slavery, many states passed segregation(隔离) laws to keep the races apart in schools, housing, restaurants and public facilities, and institutionalized discrimination kept blacks in the lowest-paid jobs.