Cognitive Dissonance Chapter Summary

In the novel, The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, author and criminal rights lawyer, Michelle Alexander emphasizes her overall thesis as our nation is currently in a state of racism, prejudice, and mass incarceration, and it is ultimately turning back time to the years of Jim Crow. Throughout her novel, she analyzes series of significant civil rights cases that support her thesis, and describe ramifications that these cases had on her thesis. In my critical analysis, I will discuss the importance of Alexanders thesis describe several turning point cases and the ramifications these cases had on her thesis, and give my own argument of why I overall agree with Alexanders novel.

After a solid first read through Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow you are presented with an incredibly troubling issue that is plaguing America. Mass incarceration of minorities has become, as Alexander puts it “…metaphorically, the new Jim Crow”(11). The way in which Alexander presents her argument immediately in the first few pages of the book, may almost appear to be a sensationalist headline from a radical civil rights movement. However this is an intelligent move that acts as a hook for the reader, who is now interested and allows Alexander to develop her argument. By using the rhetorical strategies of a strong attention getter, followed by a concrete explanation on the development of mass incarceration, she creates the perfect lure

Discrimination is another key concern for the author as he is struggling to overcome poverty, racism and intolerance. Discrimination comes in many different forms and is defined by the textbook as being any behavior directed against persons because of their membership in a particular group. As a young man Williams experienced many acts of discrimination directed towards both himself and his family. For example, after fishing one evening Carl wanted a soda but couldn?t get one from the drive-in they were passing because ?blacks were barred from the drive-in like every down-town restaurant? (Williams, 225). Another example of discrimination appears in the text when Black students were unable to obtain teaching positions once they graduated from Ball State University because of the color of their skin.

Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, examines mass incarceration in the United States, why the criminal justice system works the way it does towards minorities, the detriments associated with mass incarceration as it relates to offenders, and much more. In the introduction of her book, Alexander immediately paints the harsh reality of mass incarceration with the story of Jarvious Cotton who is denied the right to vote among other rights because he, “has been labeled as a felon and is currently on parole” (1). Other information Alexander presents in her introduction are her qualifications as an author of the book, and gives a brief summary of each chapter and how each one is laid out. Her qualifications are she is African-American civil rights attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and is also an Associate Professor at the University of Stanford Law School. From a critical standpoint, Alexander seems very qualified to write on the topic, being part of the marginalized group and also being an expert in the legal field of which the topic covers, enhances her ethos to where one could consider her an expert in mass incarceration topics, as they relate to African-Americans. Overall, the introduction of her book does a great job starting out giving a stark reality of topic at hand, giving brief statistical references about mass incarceration in the United States, and giving an outline for her book.

Michelle Alexander’s New York Times Bestseller book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is a book of many controversies. Alexander forms a complex argument of she considers mass incarceration to be the new Jim Crow. She makes interesting arguments on how and why mass incarceration of African Americans is like, the laws and policies dating back to slavery as well as the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries of the Jim Crow eras. She explores the ways in which the government continue to keep African Americans at the bottom of a racial caste.

But because of color-blindness, these facts are not realized by many people (141). Which makes it difficult to fix a problem that society does not know that it has (141-143). While chapter three introduces the shame that ex-prisoners face, chapter four entirely covers the system that goes into place after felons are released from jail (140). The stigmas that went with the Jim Crow laws, according to Alexander, were better than the current stigmas that African Americans face after they are released from jail in modern American(154-156). Alexander notes the dehumanization of African Americans and how the self-hate they began to face turns the entire black community against one another (161-167). Alexander believes that if there was any real equality during the Civil rights movement, mass incarceration would not exist, but it does today because of colorblindness (177).

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is a book written by Michelle Alexander. This book explains the mass incarceration that African-American males faced in the United States. Alexander uses many examples of discrimination throughout the book, but the most prevailing one to me was how the criminal justice system used to the War on Drugs. Alexander describes a “racial caste system” as a way that African-Americans are kept at a lower social standing then the white people. The way that Alexander presents her arguments allows we the reader to see the true racism that was faced by African- Americans. This book gives many arguments but there are some main arguments that Alexander stresses throughout the book that

Discrimination is a prejudiced or prejudicial outlook, action, or treatment of a human being based on age, sex, or race. This is one of the main themes of the novel. Crooks is discriminated because he is of African American decent. Many of the men on the farm were racist which was common at this time. Because of Crooks's color, he was not allowed to eat, sleep, or even in the others' cabin. Therefore, Crook is angry at society for oppressing him so severely.

Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness goes into great detail on race related issues that were specific to black males, the mass incarceration, and how that lead to the development of institutionalized racism in the United States. She compares the Jim Crow with recent phenomenon of mass incarceration and points out that the mass incarceration is a network of laws, policies, customs and institutions that have been working together to warrant the subordinating status of black males. In this paper I will go into a brief examination of the range of issues that she mentions in her book that are surrounding the mass incarceration of black male populations.

Racism effects the the high incarceration rates according to Michelle Alexander, the author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. This scholar writes about how the civil rights movement has been taken back by the mass incarceration of black Americans in the war on drugs. Alexander also explains how the severe consequences that these black men carry on after being incarcerated, for example not being able to get school grants or housing. The author continues to argues that all it takes is a major social movement to end americas new caste system and that it is inhumane to treat any race less then the other. Agreeing with Alexander, I believe that every race deserves equal opportunity and that high mass incarceration rates are the way they are because of racism by the criminal justice system.

Though most citizens in the United States would agree that the prison system in the U.S. needs to be amended, do they see the prison system as a way to enforce the racial caste system? At first Michelle Alexander, the author of The New Jim Crow, did not see the prison systems as racially motivated until doing further research. After researching the issue, Alexander found the prison system was a way to oppress African Americans and wrote the novel The New Jim Crow. The New Jim Crow follows the history of the racial caste system and in the novel Alexander comes to the conclusion that the mass incarceration of African American is the New Jim Crow, or in other words a new system of black oppression. Though some might try to refute the idea of mass incarceration of African Americans, Alexander offers a well thought out argument with substantial evidence and data to compellingly link Jim Crow and mass incarceration and proves that it is an issue that should be on the radar of all U.S. citizens.

Mass incarceration alludes to the investigation which ought to be clarified as exceedingly elevated pace of imprisonment among African Americans men and Latino males from troubling neighborhoods. Many will say it’s from poor families and when they take the males, it weakens the family even more. One of the main reasons for mass incarceration is to have control of the system and African American’s after slavery was annihilated. One main issue about mass incarceration would be that if an African American student drops out of high school they are more likely to end up in prison rather than a white individual.

Mass incarceration is an issue that defines us as a society. Today, the United States of America makes up about five percent of the world’s population and has twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners. Also, one of every one hundred adults are locked up, and one in every thirty-seven adults in the United States is under some form of correctional supervision: in addition, African Americans are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of whites. Young black people went through many difficulties; however, they are still called super predators by Hillary Clinton. One of many difficulties is the African slavery, although it was over a century ago, it left a scar and a horrible memory in everyone's mind. All the phenomenons that occurred in our country during the last century gathered thoughts and escalated the problem of mass incarceration which made the people including the police look differently at African American people. I am against the mass incarceration issue. Opposing Donald Trump, I think we should reduce the number of people behind bars with cautions, because It is a complex subject that has many causes and effects in the long term to the people inside and outside the prison.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness written by Michelle Alexander, presents the evidence of mass incarceration as a racial caste system. Alexander indicated that in the prison system, it is legal to discriminate against criminals practically in similar ways it was legal to discriminate against African Americans in the past. After being characterized as a felon, the previous ways of discrimination become legal, such as being denied numerous rights and are relegated to second-class status for the rest of their lives, permanently losing their right to vote, all the while, legally being denied work and not being able to engage in social programs in order to recover and restore what they have lost while in prison. In

Cognitive Dissonance has provided me with theoretical orientation which has assisted me in understanding the “psychological discomfort” experienced when some beliefs were incongruent with my behavior. But first we need to revisit time spent with my family as a I grew up, to understand how the cognitive dissonance experience came to be. I consider myself to be fortunate for having such a close relationship with both my sisters and my parents. We laugh together, we discuss politics, philosophy and religion. However, the subject of the conversation sometimes shifted gears and the center of the stage was taken over by both my parents speaking about “mujeres liberales” women who were too liberal. One theme that often seemed to accompany the subject of the dialogue were women who spent time at the night clubs. I unconsciously internalized their stories and when I went off to college I had many opportunities to do just that and spend time dancing at the clubs.