Mass Incarceration In The Grapes Of Wrath By Michelle Alexander

Alexander addresses mass incarceration through compelling and historical analysis of African Americans. This correlates to the concept of social justice and the One World Initiative theme- Global Perspective on happiness because in the era of colorblindness, it is no longer socially acceptable to use race as a justification for discrimination, segregation, and social hatred. Yet, as Michelle Alexander reveals, today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against convicted criminals in nearly all the ways that it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans during the Jim Crow era. This does not symbolize the global perspective on happiness in any way shape or form. Happiness is contentment, satisfaction, cheerfulness, joy, well-being.

Alexander uncovers the system of mass incarceration. A system of laws, rules, policies, and customs that control criminals both in prison and out of prison. The book also highlights major themes and issues in society today such as racism, inequality, and social justice. Alexander uses statistics and legal citations to argue that the approach Nixon administered, which was more of a get-tough approach to crime, and Reagan’s declaration of the War on Drugs, has devastated African Americans. The main idea that Alexander tries to make is that beginning with slavery and continuing with Jim Crow segregation, mass incarceration places entire groups of people of color into discriminatory positions in society,

James Forman Jr., who is a law professor at Yale University, wrote a paper called Racial Critiques of Mass Incarceration: Beyond the New Jim Crow. In this paper, Forman Jr. identifies Alexander as one of a number of authors who have overstated and misstated their case. He observes that her framework over-emphasizes the War on Drugs and ignores violent crimes, stating that Alexander's analysis is demographically simplistic. He suggests that Alexander does not analyze the way imprisonment is now arranged by class, even among African-Americans, and says that Alexander does not discuss the mass incarceration of other races, including whites. In the section "Overlooking Race" Forman Jr. writes that the Jim Crow analogy "obscures the extent to which whites, too, are mass incarceration’s targets," noting that "Alexander mentions them only in passing; she says that mass imprisonment’s true targets are blacks, and that incarcerated whites are ‘collateral