American Dream? American Reality! A Report on Race, Ethnicity, and the Law in the United States
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights & Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund - January 2008
Dramatic shifts over the past decade in social welfare policies and economic conditions have contributed significantly to the increasing difficulty that people of color face in realizing their civil rights. Growing reliance on policies that redistribute power to the states and localities, combined with a decrease in federal enforcement of anti-discrimination law, has amounted to an abdication of the federal role in ensuring equal opportunity.
In recent years, the judiciary has further eroded our national commitment to equality. Federal courts have increasingly adopted narrow understandings of rights and new restrictions on access to effective legal remedies that together leave victims of racial discrimination without justice.
In accordance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, we embrace international human rights strategies to connect the struggle for racial justice in the United States to a broader movement for human rights around the world. We hope that this report will be useful to the international community in assessing U.S. compliance with the Convention, and that it serves as a public education tool to aid in protecting and promoting justice throughout the United States.
