The American Nightmare

Restricting our scrutiny to last 25 years we witness the USA establishment been rudely shocked with civil disturbances in 1992 when the verdict was announced of Rodney King’s killing. In 2001, the Cincinati riots, shooting of Eric Garner in New York , Tryvon Martin, in Florida in 2012 again triggered rioting by the African –Americans. It is obvious that such responses do not take place among the young white men as young Black and Hispanic men are racially stereotyped as trouble makers. They are of course subjected to constant and increased searches and arrests. In Furguson in 2013, 86%of the vehicle stops and 92% of the searches and arrests were of Black people.

Many segments of Black people and other minorities also suffer from direct and indirect racial abuse in the day to day lives and they are very badly hit by the economic down turn . Their educational standards are inferior to the average White man and they are compelled to live within restricted opportunities. In short the majority of the Black and Hispanic people remain left behind.

Meanwhile, the American state is rapidly progressing into a very strong and deadly buraurcacy. In fact , of late a number of writers have drawn the attention of the Americans that the USA is fast moving toward a Police State”. One write lamented We are operating in a topsy-turvy Sherwood Forest where instead of Robin Hood and his merry band of thieves stealing from the rich to feed the poor , you have got a government and its merry band of corporate thieves stealing from the poor to fatten the wallets of the rich. In this way the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. All the while the American dream of peace and prosperity and liberty has turned into a nightmare of endless wars, debilitating debt and outright tyranny”. In such a scenario, the worst affected are the Blacks and the Hispanics who are at the bottom of the social ladder.

The American Corporate state’s attempt to make money at the expense of its own people is well explained by the information relating to handing over of the prisons to private companies. The Correction Corporation of America has offered to buy and manage public prisons in 48 states. The offer includes the expectation of prisoner population of at least 1000 prisoners per prison and THE STATES WOULD HAVE TO MAINTAIN 90% OCCUPANCY FOR AL LEAST 20 YEARS. . This has led to phenomenon of criminalization in which mundane activities are criminalized resulting in jail sentences.” One can of course realize how the disproportionate number of Black and Hispanic people end up in American prisons compelling them to serve repeated jail sentences and very often forced to be part of the dangerous under world rings.

The response of the Black people clearly show their frustrations for having been social outcasts for innumerable years and America’s social aberrations are still open and growing.

When the US Ambassador keeps on actively commenting and involving herself in highlighting unruly incidents in Sri Lanka with her tongue in cheek agenda, one should remind her about the plight of the Blacks and Hispanic people and their utter frustrations manifested in racial riots caused by outrage against the police killings including frequent illegal harassments.
Ranjith Soysa