The United States of America has proclaimed the equal rights to everybody. But is it so? Do all people have equal rights in our modern society? The answer is: no. We do not realize that our society may be even more cruel and unfair than the people in the East. Obviously, that there are no strict rules of behavior or a strict punishment for misdemeanors. However, the way the police treat the non-whites is horrible. There are a lot of ethnic groups in the United States of America, but the biggest is the Africa Americans, that is why, perhaps, they are treated in a different way that the white Americans. This paper is aimed to show the difference between treatment of the police to the white Americans and the representatives of ethnic minorities; this paper is aimed to show how the color of skin influences the way a person is treated by the police.
There are a lot of examples of unfairness towards African Americans. After having read the articles, it seems that the policemen were taught to arrest only the non-whites. Michelle Alexander states that such situation exists not only in the criminal justice, but also in the ordinary life as well. The African Americans do not have the proper education; they are unemployed and have the bad living conditions. As said before, the statistics is the only thing to be believed in. According to the following figures:
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- 11.8% of African Americans are taken while driving (compared to 8.9% of the Whites);
- 75.7% African Americans are stopped for increasing the speed (compared to 66% of Whites);
- 15.9% of African American drivers are stopped and have the search in their cars conducted (compared to 7.9% of Whites);
- The research has shown that 32% of African Americans have all the chances to be arrested and get into jail; and only 6% of white males have those chances;
- African Americans are treated badly during a trial and are sentenced for the crime strictly. For the same crime, Whites are receiving a suspended sentence;
- The African American youth is most likely to be arrested than the white;
- 43% of criminals sentenced to death are African Americans;
- In 1998, 72% of the federal National Household Survey on Drug Abuse was the Whites, and 15% were African Americans, although African Americans are mostly arrested for keeping drugs.
Right now, the point is that who makes ordinary citizens to treat African Americans as they are treated. Since establishing the United States as an independent country, the Africans were slaves. However, on the other hand, they have made this country prosper. Their hard work, their sweat and blood are the reasons why the United States of America is a dream country for many people in the whole world. Of course, the first settlers were working for their own; but with the development of technique and science and with building ships and exploring the world, the Africans have become the working power of Americans. This is the same as in the times when they had been slaves. One cannot say that all the Africans were honest and liked their new life. But one cannot also say that all they were robbers striving to steal more from their owners.
Those times have passed, but it seems that the Americans cannot forget the times when African Americans had been slaves. The attitude remains the same. It seems that African Americans owe the Americans something. The discrimination has become a trend or tendency in the recent years. If a person is African American, he or she is treated badly. People think that he or she may steal something or kill someone. African Americans are always considered to be intended to offend the Whites.
This research proves that African Americans do not have the same rights and white Americans. This has become a very serious problem not only of the justice system, but of the American society, in general. In my opinion, the laws should be revised and changed as well as the investigation should be made and results should be published. Thus, every citizen may compare the attitude to any African American and a white American.