Historically, the USA is a multicultural state where the representatives of many different nationalities live. There is hardly a state in the world with such a great plexus of different ethnic groups and cultures. All the history of the USA is a great example of the interethnic conflicts, starting from the European colonization and ending with our times. In the modern, humanistic society racial conflict is not a rarity. Proclaiming the tolerance principle, people forget that words are nothing without the actions. They still adhere to racial bias, totally ignoring the equality of all races and ethnic groups. The article “White Off-Duty St Louis Police Officer Shoots Dead Black Teenager” from The Guardian demonstrates us the great actuality and strain in the ethnic relations in the USA.
The article tells us about an accident which triggered the great wave of mass demonstrations and aggravation of the race question, “A white off-duty police officer in the US city of St Louis has shot killed a black teenager who fired on him, police said” (Tran para. 1). We can see the drama from the first lines of the article. It underlines the ethnicity of the participants showing us that the color of skin is still important in the USA. The author outlines the different points of view on the situation without taking somebodys side. The existence of two different versions can also be understood from the subtitle “Police claim the 18-year-old was armed and fired at least three shots, but relatives say he only had a sandwich in his hand” (Tran para. 1). The main problem is that this is not the first case of that type. The police has always been preconceived to black people considering them to be the representatives of the dangerous ethnic group, suspecting and treating them in a different way. The cases of killing black men by police officers were not rare and that last exhausted peoples patience. Discontent, and rage of people resulted in numerous protests, overcoming the state. “”If they can’t serve justice in this, the people have every right to go out and express their rage in a manner that is equal to what we have suffered,” said Ashley Yates, a co-founder of Millennial Activists United (Tran para. 15). The protestants were sure that the government exculpates the white officer trying to justify him instead of being neutral and trying to make fair decision.
The accident triggered the mass protests all over the country and showed the whole world that the race issue is extremely keen in the USA. Throughout the centuries the position of black people in the society was complicated. The great processes against racism changed it for the better but the problem still remains. The big gap between black and white people in America unfortunately exists. The level of unemployment among black Americans is much more higher than that among white. It is more difficult for them to find well-paid job. African-American students have to complete two or three levels of education in order to compete with their white peers (Bessler para 1).
Another example of the race discrimination is a great imprisonment rate among black Americans. “African Americans continue to be excessively imprisoned at a considerably higher rate than their white equivalents” (Hopkins para. 2).
This article touches the problem of ethnic relations between two different races and we can see that it is far from ideal. The great number of problems have to be solved in order to reduce the social tension and avoid such situations in future. There is no place for racial bias in 20th century.
Works Cited
Bessler, Abigail. “A Black College Student Has the Same Chances of Getting a Job as a White High School Dropout”. Thinkprogress. 2014. Web.
Hopkins, Kieran. ” Why Is the African American Imprisonment Rate Higher Than Whites?”. Huffington Post. 2013. Web.
Tran, Mark. “White off-Duty St Louis Police Officer Shoots Dead Black Teenager”.The Guardian. 2014. Web.