The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander is a non-fiction introduction in the novel “They say, I say” by Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst. The New Jim Crow is written to educate society on the discrimination and exclusion that African Americans are facing in the United States; the same discrimination and exclusion they faced when the Jim Crow laws took place. Michelle Alexander forms her evidence from her own experience fighting for the civil rights of others and she also uses people of colors experiences with losing their civil rights from being labeled a “felon” and she uses statistics to help her readers better visualize the extent of African American incarceration, these techniques provide the readers with accurate …show more content…
Alexander also states, “They are denied the ability to obtain employment, housing, and public benefits- much as African Americans were once forced into segregated, second-class citizenship in the Jim Crow era.” Alexander provides information she obtained by working with the criminal justice system. Working closely with the source, Alexander can get more accurate information and be more trustworthy to the readers. Ray 2 Furthermore, Michelle Alexander sets the image of being hopeful after the election of Barack Obama, also her believing that the racial caste system would no longer be an issue, but her hopes were quickly crushed. Alexander writes the image of a black man on his knees in the sewer, hands cuffed behind his back, as she walked out of election party, she saw bystanders walking past without so much as sparing a glance at the African American man. Alexander states “the widespread belief that race no longer matters- has blinded us to the realities of race in our society and facilitated the emergence of a new caste system.” Racial discrimination is so regularized to our society that we fail to see the issues African Americans face around us. …show more content…
Also, Michelle Alexander discusses the statistics of how black men are more likely to face harsh punishment for drug charges while white men get a mild reprimand. She states, “In some states, black men have been admitted to prison on drug charges at rates twenty to fifty times greater than those of white men.” Alexander also writes that America has the highest rate of incarceration in the nation; the majority incarcerated inmates are racial or ethnic minorities. She also adds that mass incarceration is seen as a justice issue when it really is a racial and criminal justice issue. Alexander uses the statistics of how a black man is more likely to face punishment from law enforcement. By using proven facts Alexander better informs the readers how the racial caste system works in law enforcement. Ultimately, Michelle Alexander persuades the audience with stories of the injustice African Americans face because of the wrongful use of incarceration in the United States of America. She also uses the statistics for her readers to have a full understanding that she is Ray 2 finding the evidence to support her claims that America has the highest incarceration rate in
The New Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness written by Michelle Alexander discusses the old racial caste systems and the system of mass incarceration, and she uses analogies to show different parallels and similarities between them. Alexander states it is creating a modern racial caste system. She asks where have all the good black men gone, and uses examples like Obama's speech on the black stereotype of fathers who are nowhere to be found. She's explaining how many look into this idea but don't reasonably solve the question. Alexander answers the question by saying they are warehoused in prison; locked in cages.
Watching Michelle Alexander’s book discussion was such an eye opening experience for me to a matter that I was blind to till now. Watching her discussion brought feelings of anger, shock, shame, but most of all hope. I was completely unaware to the mass incarceration of minorities. I was aware of the increase of mass incarnation but not to the extent that Michelle explained in her discussion. I believe that Michelle’s description of the birth of a caste like system in the US to be extremely accurate.
In this essay, I will explain the three major racial castes that Alexander discussed and how both Republicans and Democratic are responsible for this caste system, how the new Jim Crow impacted the Black community and how it is like the “old” Jim Crow, the relations between the New Jim Crow and #BlackLivesMatter, and finally famous figures fight against police brutality and support Black Lives Matter. The three major caste systems that Alexander explained in her book are enslavement, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration. In this quote, “The notion of white supremacy rationalized
Not long ago, black Americans could not vote, use the same facilities as white people, and nor did they have any sort of voice in politics. Cone’s focal points may come across as strong and almost radical, but he is not wrong. While conditions continue to get better for black Americans, structures developed over history that still seem to prevent full equality and respect from ever being achieved. Cone is trying to show the light at the end of the tunnel exists, but this light can only be reached through a black
She argues that the widespread absenteeism of Black fathers is largely due to mass incarceration and that while Black leaders openly discuss the topic, none of them acknowledge the real reason: the criminal justice system. Alexander uses these truths to exemplify the fact that the prison system is segregation in disguise; it exiles Black men from society while they are behind bars and returns them to marginalized, segregated communities that have been ravaged by the War on
The Meaning of Freedom: And Other Difficult Dialogues written by Angela Davis explains her personal experiences growing up in Birmingham, Alabama during a time of racial segregation, capitalism and an unjust prison system. With the use of her personal experience and scholarly research, activist Davis investigates the institutionalized biases that support the criminal justice system in order to identify potential reforms that could result in a more just and equal society. In the chapter “The Prison Industrial Complex”, Davis highlights the relationship between the criminal justice system and people of color/immigrants. Several issues are addressed such as fear of crime and the reality of prisons, creation of public enemies, conditions which produce the prison industrial complex, structural connections and
Alexander explains the process of mass incarceration, which was another form of slavery and is keeping blacks very oppressed from the outside world. Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Regan both had parts in creating the war on drugs, which was meant to put all the people using drugs into prison. The war on drugs put a record number of people in prison, with a large amount of the prison population being black people. Baldwin says that white people won’t face the cruel conditions blacks have always been accustomed too, and that is clearly shown with mass incarceration, as the population of blacks in prison was much higher than whites, even though blacks have a disproportionate amount of people in America compared to white people. While the politicians and police officers were trying their best to put African Americans into prison, they preached that these laws were ‘color blind’.
She first supports her claim by chronicling America 's history of institutionalized racism and systematic disenfranchisement of African Americans. Then, she discusses America 's War on Drugs that disproportionately targets minorities and finally as she examines the hardship faced by felons she compares and contrasts Jim Crow Laws to mass incarceration. Alexander surmises that mass incarceration is designed to maintain white supremacy and sustain a racial classification system. Alexander 's book is relevant to my research paper because she provides evidence that the criminal justice system is rooted in racism and directly linked to the racist agenda of the white supremacist. Broussard, B. (2015).
Throughout history, race has been a defining factor in our nation’s society. It has created a distinct divider between the diverse people of this country and has been the cause for severe discrimination over the years. However, one can find it baffling that, of all things, the color of a person’s skin is more important than the virtue of their heart. In response, African American writers have taken it upon themselves to speak out. By sharing their own racially influenced experiences with the public, they have depicted the unfair treatment they have received solely based on their skin color; they have shed light upon the fact that stereotypes unjustly influence they way they are perceived in society .
This idea is echoed in Alexander’s article, as she states, “Like Jim Crow (and slavery), mass incarceration operates as a tightly networked system of laws… and institutions that operate collectively to ensure the subordinate status of a group defined largely by race,” both during and following prison (Alexander 2010, 8). The financial adversity and discrimination that Tracy encounters during his job interview experience emboldens Alexander’s argument that incarceration disadvantages black people economically, socially, and politically in
Introduction Attention Getter: According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, “One in three black men can expect to go to prison in their lifetime” (Kerby 1). Bridge: People of color are going to prison at a drastically high rate for something they may or may not have done. Introduction of Topic: Racial profiling is happening all around the country and it is violating the rights and equality of African Americans.
Michelle Alexander, similarly, points out the same truth that African American men are targeted substantially by the criminal justice system due to the long history leading to racial bias and mass incarceration within her text “The New Jim Crow”. Both Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Michelle Alexander’s text exhibit the brutality and social injustice that the African American community experiences, which ultimately expedites the mass incarceration of African American men, reflecting the current flawed prison system in the U.S. The American prison system is flawed in numerous ways as both King and Alexander points out. A significant flaw that was identified is the injustice of specifically targeting African American men for crimes due to the racial stereotypes formed as a result of racial formation. Racial formation is the accumulation of racial identities and categories that are formed, reconstructed, and abrogated throughout history.
In Bryan Stevenson’s TED Talk, he describes the statistics of imprisoned Black people, stating, “One out of three Black men between the ages of 18 and 30 is in jail, in prison, on probation or parole” (Stevenson). If people change their morals to be more focused on treating everyone equally, the number of incarcerated Black people will slowly lessen. It is highly likely that some of these men are innocent but will have a hard time proving so because of their race. One out of three is a very big ratio that can only be decreased if systemic racism is eliminated. Together, Lee and Stevenson highlight the injustices
For example, open Black support of harsh punishment and law enforcement may seem hypocritical because in reality these policies and practices contribute to mass incarceration of Blacks. Alexander clarifies that Black support is more complex than it appears and can be attributed to a combination of complicity and wanting better safety for their communities and families (Alexander, 2012, p.210). Alexander also offers a unique perspective throughout the entire book by explaining how the systems of slavery and oppression have affected White individuals and not merely in the form of privilege or the dismissal of White people as simply as racist individuals. I resonated with one particular section discussing the "White victims of racial caste" (Alexander, 2012, p.204); the author 's anecdote of a white woman falling in love with a Black man and due to miscegenation laws could not have children. I could relate to this story on a deeply personal level in that my own parents experienced extreme and countless hurdles due to their interracial relationship and having biracial
The problem is our political structure and the unequal distribution of resources, information, and punishment for crimes. The fact of the matter is that if a white man and a black man commit the exact same crime, it is almost guaranteed that the black man will serve more time in prison. In Coates’ article The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration (2015), he addresses Moynihan’s claim that “…most Negro youth are in danger of being caught up in the tangle of pathology that affects their world…”. He critiques Moynihan in saying that, despite revealing his subjective opinions about the causes of these “pathologies”, he does not give any concrete solutions. Similar to the modern, enterprising feminist, Sheryl Sandberg, whom declares that women need to strap on their boots and “Lean In “, in order to claim their place in society equal to men, Moynihan placed the responsibility to fix the structural problems of inequality on the victims of oppression rather than addressing the historical significance of the power struggles between the powerful and the