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Michelle Alexander The New Jim Crow Summary

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In The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in The Era of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander, she begins by points out the underlying problem in our Criminal Justice system. The problem being prioritizing the control of those in this racial caste rather than focusing on reasonable punishment and efforts to deter crime. Alexander begins by speaking of her experience as a civil rights lawyer and what soon became her priority after seeing a poster that mentioned how the war on drugs is the new jim crow when it comes to the application and outcome of it. As Alexander points out the correlation between the war on drugs and it being the new jim crow, she discusses the mass incarceration that is prevalent in our society and the number of African American …show more content…

The racial disparity can be accounted for through the mass incarceration of black offenders in terms of sentencing with mention of a racial caste in place, not allowing those of color to move from their position. As such, mass incarceration has led to prisons being filled with an overpopulation of those who are black than any other race. Interesting enough, it has been proven through surveys that those who are white are more likely to engage in drug crime rather than those who are black. I found this to be an interesting point to discuss as it raises the question as to just why are more people of color incarcerated at a growing rate than …show more content…

Even more when she explains how slavery, although no longer in the form it was before, has been masked into a different form being the mass incarceration of people of color when she mentions society’s colorblindness. With this in mind, one of the main reasons Alexander compares mass incarceration and Jim Crow South is due to many of those who are incarcerated being stripped of their rights, the very rights given to them by the Civil Rights Act. Once those who are incarcerated are let back out into society they are denied legally their rights. Rights such as voting, obtaining employment, housing, welfare, and are stigmatized as being the forefront that all who are black are offenders. This notion has led many to believe how similar the after effects of mass incarceration and Jim Crow South are. As before the Civil Rights Act, African Americans didn’t have the right to do anything and were instead subjected to segregation that involved the same legality and treatment. For this reason, it’s important to demonstrate how Jim Crow South and segregation has appeared to still be prevalent in our society in the form of mass

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Chapter 1 of “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander, that is also a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, wrote this chapter to inform us the history of racism in America, and if African Americans really treated equally. When the Emancipation Proclamation was passed, many whites were scared that the slaves are now free because they might want revenge, so the whites made a stereo type that all black men are criminals. When the Reconstruction ended, the south had a redemption. The convicts had no legal rights, so they became the “slaves” to help rebuild after the civil war. Then the prison population of blacks rose so the whites can use them as free labor.

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The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander is a book outlining and analysing the social constructs of the United States of America through the context of mechanics of the judicial system. It compares and contrasts the slavery, old Jim Crow law and post Jim Crow law eras in the means to highlight the racial discrimination against the Black and Brown community by the White elite. The author explores the court cases and legislation passed by the government to implement a national system geared to favor the White community and its effects on the imagery that has developed in the American mind set. Michelle Alexander is among many things an African-American woman. She is lawyer who represented in the Civil Rights era.

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The New Jim Crow When looking for a book about racial perception I wanted to find a book that looks at racial perception from a different perspective that I had not thought of. This information would need to be new and fresh and be able to open me up to new questions on racial perception. The first stop I made was to Ygnacio Valley Library. Looking around was not very difficult since racism and world conflicts have a shelf dedicated to themselves. I searched through the first couple pages of different books and took a glance at the table of contents.

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Alexander arguments were about equality. As stated in the book, “The backlash against the gains of African Americans in the Reconstruction Era was swift and serve. As African Americans obtained political power and began the long march toward greater social and economic equality, whites reacted with panic and outrage” (30). Many whites didn’t appreciate that African American were gaining power. I believe that racism is a very cruel and brutal topic.

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