USA is always at the forefront of protesting and publicly giving decrees against governments around the globe when it comes to human rights. Uncle Sam portrays himself the harbinger of good and just causes while denouncing and sometimes putting sanctions with or without UN approval on governments not obligatory to their whims. The U.S. State Department issues a report on human rights in other countries around the world. The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices have been an annual tradition since 1977 . Any country not towing the set parameters laid down by selected group led by US, is denounced and smudged with shadow of punitive sanctions always lurking . US projection of global watchdog is hypocrisy since human rights violations within US are increasing alarmingly but is conveniently ignored.
America of today is passing through a social turmoil with least regard for human rights violations. Most of the news emerging out of US points towards burgeoning social unrest, unabated violence, mass gun deaths, racism, racial profiling and police brutalities on black population and minorities . The most disturbing uptrend is the police brutal killings of hapless black people in cold blood. African-Americans are being marked and targeted for racial profiling, for arrest,for brutality and outright murder by law enforcement agencies. The escalating division inside the US between law enforcement agencies and the African-American as well as other linguistic or religious minorities is astonishing.
The escalating brutal crackdown of law enforcement agencies on innocent African-American community is only a small piece of problem, the growing intolerance towards religious minorities and racial profiling without any remorse or shame is another. The shallowness of rhetoric on respect for human rights by US can be gauged from the fact that it supported Saudi Arabia candidacy to lead UNHRC, a country known for blatant human rights abuses. The uptrend in violence of one community towards people from other races has reached alarming proportion now and efforts to silence voices is proving futile. The high-profile police killings of black men, mass gun violence and targeted killings of police officers, testifies the worsening civilian unrest in US.
There's no denying the fact that gun violence,racial tensions are at their worst in USA with abuse of power by the police is only making environment murkier by the day. Under the present scenario it is but natural to compare present day America with South Africa of past. The comparison is baffling with figures are worse when compared . The United States incarcerates a higher proportion of blacks than apartheid South Africa did. In America, the black-white wealth gap today is greater than it was in South Africa in 1970 at "the peak of apartheid". According to reports that whites in South Africa owned 15 times more than blacks in 1970s, while the current ratio for the United States is 18 to 1. The gap in household income, the ratio of unemployment, and the number of children going to segregated schools have all remained roughly the same. The disparity in incarceration rates has gotten worse.
It wouldn't be wrong to question US for deteriorating human rights abuses and coerce government to initiate steps to restore sense of equality and justice among disadvantaged vulnerable groups, who are at mercy of trigger happy law enforcement agencies.Under present circumstances its naive to consider sermons seriously from US unless it sets his house in order and take meaningful steps to address the growing social unrest in its backyard. It is high time for the US government to face its own human rights problems with courage and give up the unwise practices of applying double standards on human rights issues.
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