Alexander The New Jim Crow Summary

In today’s modern world, many people would be surprised to find out that there is still a racial caste system in America. After witnessing the election of a black president, people have started believing that America has entered a post-racial society. This is both a patently false and dangerous mindset. The segregation and stigma of race is still very much alive in our society. Instead of a formalized institution such as slavery or Jim Crow, America has found a new way to continue the marginalization of blacks by using the criminal justice system. In Michelle Alexander’s book “ The New Jim Crow”, she shows how America’s “ War on Drugs “ has become a tool of racial segregation and how the discretionary enforcement of drug laws has

Many believe that civil rights movements have completely eradicated racial injustices and inequality in the United States. Michelle alexander disprove this myth in her book “The New Jim Crow.” Alexander claims racial caste did not die with slavery. She implies that the racial caste system in America has been reformed multiple times to meet “the needs and demands of current political climates” (alexander 52). She believes that mass incarceration which she refers to as “The New Jim Crow” is the current caste system in the United States. By elaborating on the history of racial caste in America and by including quotes from politicians such as Nixon and Lyndon Johnson, Alexander effectively persuades her reader that the United States has not achieved

Without a doubt, black men in the United States continue to be excessively “incarcerated, policed, and sentenced to death at significantly higher rates than their white counterparts (Kerby 2).” Portrayals in the media have depicted black men as thugs and common criminals; these negative stereotypes demoralize men of color and allow society to believe and internalize this destructive thinking. The racial disparities that exist in the criminal justice system are an indirect consequence of the portrayals of African American men that circulate in society. Because of racial disparities that occur in the United States it consequently threatens communities of color by “disenfranchising thousands by limiting voting rights and denying equal access to employment, housing, public benefits, and education to millions more (Kerby 2).”

Alexander’s main premises focuses on the large majority of African American men imprisoned today, as she reflects on the direct result of it that “young black men today may be just as likely to suffer discrimination in employment, housing, public benefits. And jury service as a black man in the Jim Crow era- discrimination that is perfectly legal, because it is based on one’s criminal record.” (Alexander, 181) Alexander points out not only how a significant portion of black men are ending up in prison, but how when released they face discrimination because of their criminal record making them unable to rehabilitate their lives and putting them back into the ghetto. Discrimination is a main factor which puts people of color in the penal system, and a main factor which when getting out keeps them from changing their lifestyle for the better.

The third critical book review for this class takes a look at “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander published in 2012 by the New York Press. This book analyzes the problem with the incarceration system in the United States today that unfairly affects the African American community. This incarceration system is continuing to separate families, strip men of their freedom, and effectually make them into second class citizens upon release from prison as “free” men. She even describes that those who are convicted of these crimes are “relegated to a racially segregated and subordinated existence” (Pg. 4). Michelle Alexander is not only a published author but is also an active Civil Rights activist all while currently employed as an associate professor of law at Ohio State University. It is a very interesting read that coincides with where our class discussions have recently been. It argues that we as a country have not ended racial discrimination but just transformed it into a new type of caste system. It is an eye opening book that created an uncomfortable feeling while reading due to my level of ignorance on this topic prior to taking this class. I believe that this book will serve as an important narrative into fixing the race problems in this country because it brings to light what needs to be fixed. If any progress is made it will be because of books like this that expose the problems but starting to fix them will be the next step.

Racism in the United States has not remained the same over time since its creation. Racism has shifted, changed, and shaped into unrecognizable ways that fit into the fabric of the American society to render it nearly invisible to the majority of Americans. Michelle Alexander, in her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness shatters this dominantly held belief. The New Jim Crow makes a reader profoundly question whether the high rates of incarceration in the United States is an attempt to maintain blacks as an underclass. Michelle Alexander makes the assertion that “[w]e have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it” using the criminal justice system and colorblind rhetoric. (Alexander 2). The result is a population of Black and Latino men who face barriers and deprivation of rights as did Blacks during the Jim Crow era. Therefore, mass incarceration has become the new Jim Crow.

To offer evidence to the reader of the racial motivations behind mass incarceration, Alexander follows the history of the racial caste system. The history begins with slavery, which was the original form of African American oppression. With slavery, according to Alexander, barriers were created between lower class whites and blacks, which led to decades of racism later (Alexander, 2010). After the death of slavery, the racism lived on and Jim Crow laws were created after Reconstruction to

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is a book by Michelle Alexander, a civil rights litigator and legal scholar. The book discusses race-related issues specific to African-American males and mass incarceration in the United States. Michelle Alexander (2010) argues that despite the old Jim Crow is death, does not necessarily means the end of racial caste (p.21). In her book “The New Jim Crow”, Alexander describes a set of practices and social discourses that serve to maintain African American people controlled by institutions. In this book her analyses is centered in examining the mass incarceration phenomenon in recent years. Comparing Jim Crow with mass incarceration she points out that mass incarceration is

Although the Jim Crow legislation system no longer exists, Alexander claims that this racial caste system has taken a different form in the society. Like the Jim Crow system, the incarceration system works to lock up black men though legal frames work. In fact, it is common to hear that black men are arrested much more than white men. In Alexander’s view, many black men are arrested and segregated in American

In The New Jim Crow, Alexander addresses our lack of comprehension of our rights as an important factor in why targeted groups by police may sometimes run into legal troubles despite being avoidable issues. Johnson’s Privilege, Power, and Difference addresses our naivete towards our individual privileges in society as an important factor that solely contributes to why the system of privilege has been able to continue in the United States and other nations. Meanwhile, Omi and Winant’s Racial Formations addresses the fact that race is a construct created as a method of separating those who were free and who were enslaved, not as a mere name that established our origins in a manner that pertained to individuals. As a

Also, it is a challenge to those working in the areas of civil rights and social activism to rise up and organize against the system that supports the New Jim Crow. Her analogy of the New Jim Crow and a caste system is also credible in terms of how it applies to the plight of convicted felons. As she examines the long-term consequences of the “War on Crime” and the “War on Drugs” on criminal convictions and the loss of civil liberties, Alexander paints a clear picture of the casual, almost apathetic, manner in which our society has bought into the belief that we require constant police protection in order to live safe. In addition, she’s not afraid to challenge people for their careless disregard for those who have been relegated to the fringes of civil society. The mantra may be, “Do The Crime…Do The Time,” but in today’s era of the New Jim Crow, the “time” appears to be endless for those with a criminal

Michelle Alexander throughout her book introduces us to the way the “New Jim Crow”works in today's society. This new jim crow can be taken as a racial caste throughout the United States. She defines this undercaste as “A lower caste of individuals who are permanently barred by law and custom from mainstream society (Alexander pg 13) Not only does this have to do because of mass incarceration rates among black men, but it also adds to the effects of what the branded felons must face beyond the prison walls. She mentions this early on in her book that

The Condemnation of Blackness: Analysis of Black Criminalization in America. Khalil Muhammad’s analysis of black criminality in the history of The United States provides a stunning perspective on our world today. His work is an invaluable gift for all individuals who are interested in understanding the racialization of crime in America. From the first chapter to the last chapter, Muhammad dissects numerous information and draws conclusions regarding black lives before, during and after the civil war. As he puts it “The Condemnation of Blackness demonstrates and explains how ideas of racial inferiority and crime became fastened to African Americans by contract to ideas of class and crime that shaped the

Socialization techniques of African Americans, in particular black males in the criminal justice system are vastly dissimilar in comparison to their white counterparts. The dominant socialization indifference is theoretically associated with Marxist Criminology schools of thought, in particular conflict theory. Qualitative, empirical, and historical data supports Marxist criminology based on capitalism, conflict, and the disparity treatment of the Afro-American male within the criminal justice system: police, courts, and corrections. This research will address how capitalism creates a caste system that perpetuates conflict. Furthermore, this research will briefly explore the correlation of American capitalism, slavery, Jim Crow, and the new “Negro” coined criminal; and the Marx school of thought as it pertains to African American males interaction within the American criminal justice system and the hidden agenda of its capitalistic government.

Today, many racial and social ideas plague our society and turn people against each other. The Film 13th for example details the history of slavery and post-Civil war legislation which led to the introduction of racial control systems. I think that the film is named 13th because it talks about the 13th amendment, which allowed every person except prisoners to be free. The 13th amendment also allowed the slaves to be free and prohibited slavery. This is important because the film connected slavery to the 13th amendment. In this film, the idea about convict leasing was brought up. In this case, the police arrested freed men and forced them to work under these terms. It is also mentioned in the film that blacks in the 20th century was disenfranchised in the South, and they went through a period of exclusion from political matters. Media in that period depicted blacks as cannibalistic and animal like. Because of this, they were considered the untouchables of society in the 19th to 20th centuries. Alexander titles her book after the New Jim Crow in light of the fact that the Jim Crow law said that non-white individuals now have criminal records and are denied the rights that their granddads used to have. She associates this to the Jim Crow law by clarifying and exhibiting some critical insights about blacks. Alexander said that more African Americans are in restorative control today than there were in 1850. She likewise showed that in 2004, African American men were disappointed