The Effects Of Racism In The New Jim Crow Laws

In The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander develops a compelling analogy on how mass incarceration is similar to the Jim Crow era, and is a “race-making institution.” She begins her work with the question, “Where have all the black men gone?” (Alexander, 178) She demonstrates how the media and Obama have failed to give an honest answer to this question, that the large majority of them or in prison. She argues that in order to address this problem, we must be honest about the fact that this is happening, and the discrimination with the African American communities that is putting them there.

“The New Jim Crow” was written by Michelle Alexander based off of her experience working for the ACLU of Oakland in which she saw racial bias in the justice system that constituted people of color second-class citizens (Alexander 3); which is why the comparison had been made to the Jim Crow laws that existed in the nineteenth century consistently throughout Alexander's novel. Alexander notes comparisons in white resentment, colorblind language, segregation in neighborhoods, legal discrimination, etc., while the difference are the lack of activism that is shown in response to

Alexander asserts “Jim Crow appears to die, but then are reborn in a new form tailored to the needs and constraints of the time.” The announcement of the War on Drugs steamroll mass incarceration of African-Americans in creating more crime and disparities in the African-American communities. When African-Americans are released from prison new Jim Crow laws took it one step further to maintain racialized social control by labeling African-Americans as felon. Alexander states “once you label to filing all formative discrimination in employment discrimination, housing discrimination, the now on the right to vote, denial of educational opportunities to now of food stamps and other public benefits, and exclusion from jury servers are suddenly legal.” P page 2

The whole Jim Crow Law rules were based on the separate but equal properties. Any of the laws that enforced racial segregation in the south between the end of reconstruction in 1877 and the beginning of the civil rights movement in the 1950s. Jim crow laws affected public places such as schools, housing jobs, parks, cemeteries, and public gathering places. Ohio was one of the first to ban interracial marriage. There was forms of segregation before the laws came into place. For instance some people had the mentality that they could work with a slave as long as the slave knew his or her place. Brown vs. Board of Education is an example of a Jim Crow law being put into action. After the supreme court unanimously held that racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause.

Racism is defined as the discrimination directed against someone that is of a different race based upon the belief that one’s race is more superior than others. Racism in the 1920s was a time period after World War II of disagreement between African Americans and Caucasians in America. Racism in the 1920s led to many disagreements and violent incidents due to the effects it had on different cultures. In about the 1500s, European Colonists had finally arrived in North America. There were very small occurring conflicts with the settlers at first, but then they had started to increase as the years progressed.

This “war on drugs,” which all subsequent presidents have embraced, has created a behemoth of courts, jails, and prisons that have done little to decrease the use of drugs while doing much to create confusion and hardship in families of color and urban communities.1,2Since 1972, the number of people incarcerated has increased 5-fold without a comparable decrease in crime or drug use.1,3 In fact, the decreased costs of opiates and stimulants and the increased potency of cannabis might lead one to an opposing conclusion.4 Given the politics of the war on drugs, skyrocketing incarceration rates are deemed a sign of success, not failure. I don’t totally agree with the book (I think linking crime and black struggle is even older than she does, for instance) but I think The New Jim Crow pursues the right line of questioning. “The prison boom is not the main cause of inequality between blacks and whites in America, but it did foreclose upward mobility

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

Even after the hurdle of being enslaved was passed, there were many more and difficult hurdles ahead. For example, the black codes were an earlier major hurdle. The codes prevented African Americans from owning weapons, votes, and land. While the Black Codes were quickly abolish; a group emerged called the Ku Klux Klan which aimed to bring down African Americans to be seen as less than then human. However, the Jim Crow laws caused separation, and that separation led to African Americans having unequal opportunities. These laws were claimed to be constitutional, because they didn't deprive any person of life, liberty, or property; or trying to include slavery. From the Black codes to Jim Crow laws, African Americans had, and have many hurdles to overcome.

African American adults emerged in many ways following the chaos of the civil war. The African Americans needed to build a community following this occurrence. They were able to do so using the many job experiences and skills that they had developed and later became fine-tuned as time went on. These job experiences included millwrights to build mills, carpenters to build homes, blacksmiths to make the tools and everything needed for building, and stone masons for stone structures and buildings. Being skilled in these areas was very important to the community building process, allowing them to build their schools, churches, mason halls, and orphanages. This allowed them to even start a bereavement fund and building plots for those who have passed. The African Americans also would have been able to support their family using these skills and experiences to earn the money. And take the time and ingenuity to build their community’s as they stuck together as one. African Americans needed

The New Jim Crow is a book that discusses how legal practices and the American justice system are harming the African American community as a whole, and it argues that racism, though hidden, is still alive and well in our society because of these practices. In the book, Michelle Alexander, author and legal scholar, argues that legal policies against offenders have kept and continue to keep black men from becoming first class citizens, and she writes that by labeling them as “criminals,” the justice system and society in general is able to act with prejudice against them and subordinate black Americans who were previously incarcerated, on probation, or on parole, by limiting their access to services as a result of their ‘criminal status’ and therefore, further degrading their quality of life. The New Jim Crow urges readers to acknowledge the injustice and racial disparity of our criminal justice system so that this new, more covert form of racism in society can be stopped.

Mass incarceration is known as a net of laws, policies, and rules that equates to the American criminal justice system. This series of principles of our legal system works as an entrance to a lifelong position of lower status, with no hope of advancement. Mass incarceration follows those who are released from prison through exclusion and legalized discrimination, hidden within America. The New Jim Crow is a modernized version of the original Jim Crow Laws. It is a modern racial caste system designed to keep American black men and minorities oppressed with laws and regulations by incarceration. The system of mass incarceration is the “new Jim Crow” due to the way the U.S. criminal justice system uses the “War on Drugs” as the main means of allowing discrimination and repression. America currently holds the highest rate of incarceration in the world, and even more African American men imprisoned, although white men are more likely to commit drug crimes but not get arrested. The primary targets of the criminal justice system are men of color. Mass incarceration is a rigid, complex system of racial control that resembles Jim Crow.

Jim Crow sets the guidelines for a violent mindset that will fabricate deadly culture norms. The Jim Crow laws did not directly address that a person of color like Emmett could not go into Bryants' store and supposedly "flirt" with her. It was not the law of division that allowed Carolyn's husband and brother-in-law to beat young Emmett to death, burn in his body and throw him in the river. It was the self-entitlement that white lives mattered more than blacks derived from Jim Crow laws saying the contradiction of separate but equal that allowed the killing of a 14-year-old boy on false accusations without legal implications for the murderers. There were unspoken rules and social standings that would not be tolerated anymore.

The Jim Crow laws were statutes enacted by Southern States, beginning in the late 1870s in early 1880s, the legalized segregation between African Americans and whites. The Jim Crow laws restricted the rights of African-Americans to use public facilities, schools, to vote, to find decent employment, basically excluding African-Americans from existing their rights as citizens of the United States.

Jim Crow was a man who created laws, that affected many peoples lives during the 1960s. These laws made it much harder for blacks mainly in the South, but then it started to move upward in the United States. There were many purposes leading to creating these laws. During this era, blacks were excluded from many things and opportunities. These laws made many changes and changed how the things were after these laws were taken away. The Jim Crow Laws affected, harmed, excluded, and ruined many blacks and in some cases white peoples lives.

In The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander maps out the parallels between the old Jim Crow system and the new racial caste system of mass incarceration. There are many profound similarities between these two systems, such as historical parallels, closing the courthouse doors, and racial segregation.