A policeman patrols near the scene of a shooting in San Bernardino City of Southern California, the United States, on Dec. 2, 2015. (Photo: Xinhua/Yang Lei)
More than five decades ago, Martin Luther King Jr. made a powerful and famous speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., painting his dream of racial equality and justice for the nation.
"I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream," King said in August 1963.
The "Dream" speech inspired the whole nation and helped galvanize the Civil Rights Movement.
More than five decades later however, U.S. society is still seriously plagued by racial disparity and discrimination, which persists in almost every social aspect, including employment, housing, education, and particularly, justice.
A 2015 CBS News/New York Times poll found that majorities of both whites and blacks viewed race relations negatively and 61 percent of Americans said race relations in the United States were bad, the highest percentage since 1992.
Meanwhile, law enforcement and the justice field were heavily affected by racial discrimination, with 88 percent of African-Americans believing they were treated unfairly by police, and 68 percent of African-Americans believing the U.S. criminal justice system was racially biased.
Whites had 12 times the wealth of blacks and nearly 10 times more than Hispanics. It was said that the American Dream remained out of reach for many African-American and Hispanic families. Many believe that race relations in the country are at their worst in nearly two decades.
In August 2014, Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man, was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white officer, in Ferguson County in the U.S. state of Missouri, after he robbed a convenience store.
Police then confirmed that the black teenager was unarmed. Brown's death has stirred weeks of protests in Ferguson and other regions in the United States. Later, the protests turned into riots in some places.
On Nov. 24, a grand jury decided not to indict Wilson, which stoked outrage and protests in several cities in the country again. Slogans such as "Hands up, don't shoot," and "Black lives matter -- all lives matter," were made popular by demonstrators in Ferguson and beyond.
The Ferguson case exposed severe racial discrimination in American society as well as serious drawbacks in its political and judicial system, which worsened social differentiation and the growing wealth gap.
The case also demonstrates how Americans on the lower rungs of society were held back in the pursuit of their American Dream, and explains why many media and observers have sometimes said the American Dream has been lost.
The Ferguson case is another "post-financial crisis" mass protest following the Occupy Wall Street movement, which started in New York in mid-September 2011 and has spread to dozens of U.S. cities.
Observers said both the Ferguson riots and the Occupy Wall Street movement revealed the anger of Americans over the social injustice in the country as well as their disappointment with the American Dream.
According to a new study by academics, wealth inequality in the United States is at near-record levels. Over the past three decades, the share of household wealth owned by the top 0.1 percent has increased from 7 percent to 22 percent.
