ility of the judicial system to remain blind to the ethnicity of its participants. This has stemmed injustice from the thin blue line (Rodney King) to the Supreme Court (Plessy v. Ferguson). 4) Finally, minorities suffer from drug and alcohol abuse and other social disorders at a higher percentage than whites. Evidence of the disproportionate percentage of minorities incarcerated is readily available. According to Katheryn Russell, author of Color of Crime, blacks make up 12% of the overall U.S. population. Yet they represent 30% of arrests and 50% of those incarcerated (28-29). The most amazing statistic comes from Marvin Free, Jr. whose research found that African Americans living in cities with a population of 250,000 or more have a 51% chance of being arrested (African Americans..., 8). Russell listed many of the ridiculous reasons minorities have been pulled over by police officers: 1) Driving a luxury car, 2) driving with a white woman, 3) driving in a white neighborhood, 4) driving late at night and several others. The reasoning behind many traffic stops of blacks were so ludicrous that Russell believed a new charge should be established: DWB or "Driving While Black" (Color...,33). Capital punishment also reflects racial disparity. Between 1977 and 1984, the state of Texas executed 13 African Americans who were convicted of killing whites. No whites convicted of killing blacks were executed. Prior to 1974, 65% of those executed were black. Presently, over 40% of those executed are black and the percentage increases to over 55% when all minorities are included (African..., 107). One example of the extreme measures the justice system will take against minority killers is the situation that occurred in Homestead, Pennsylvania. Police had been investigating a black rapist/murderer for four years without any success. They finally asked all black men in the area to submit to fingerprinting. No such intrusive inciden...
