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Summary Of The New Jim Crow By Michelle Alexander

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The book “The New Jim Crow” Written by Michelle Alexander, Specifically chapter 5 compares and contrasts the two different eras of Jim Crow. When comparing the new vs. the old Jim Crow, the motives are similar, while their methods and means are different. The old Jim Crow is the blatant discrimination, exile, and removal of rights geared towards African Americans or people of color. While the effects are the same for the new Jim Crow, the methods of achievement are more ambiguous. The new Jim Crow utilizes incarceration to achieve their goals. Michelle alexander states in her book that “1 in every 14 black men was behind bars in 2006, compared with 1 in 106 white men” (61). The idea of incarceration, in this situation, mass incarceration is …show more content…

In society people have gathered and formed opinions and beliefs on what oppression is. “Governor Wallace of Alabama blocking the schoolhouse door; we think of water hoses, lynchings, racial epithets, and “whites only” signs” (108) are things, explained by michelle, are things that formed the incorrect idea of what oppression actually is. While this form of oppression is during the original Jim Crow era is face forward and very obvious, it has altered and skewed our views on oppression and racism as a whole. Mass incarceration has formed this idea of a bird cage, with the idea that If “one thinks about racism by examining only one wire of the cage, or one form of disadvantage, it is difficult to understand how and why the bird is trapped” (108). The system that traps and oppressed African Americans during the modern era is a much more structural intricate system. Rather than being oppressed by governors or signs, the modern day Jim Crow oppresses people by a larger systematic system. This system consists of shutting down businesses and job opportunities in poorer communities which then leaves a need for income. This income is then fixed by false hope in the form of crack cocaine. Crack cocaine is then attacked and then becomes the main target in a war on Drugs set by the President. The appeal of targeting this drug becomes incentivized by money and benefits. Which in turn leads to the Mass incarceration of these poorer communities (African Americans). After going through the penal system these people are then legally allowed to be discriminated upon, leaving them without housing, jobs, work, or simply a voice in society. Which ultimately leaves these people oppressed and exiled from society. The oppression of African Americans is very prominent, whether it is obviously blatant actions from governors and signs or a complex structural system that traps these people in a

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On page thirty-two of The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander explicitly states that we transitioned from the death of the "Old Jim Crow" to the birth of "The New One" through: "a criminal justice system that was strategically employed to force African Americans back into a system of extreme repression and control" (32). After the death of slavery / during the Reconstruction Era, African Americans obtained political power and began the long march toward greater social and economic equality. As a result, whites reacted with panic / outrage and conservatives vowed to reverse Reconstruction / "redeem" the South. Through the Ku Klux Klan, resurgent white supremacists fought a terrorist campaign against Reconstruction governments and local leaders.

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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Alexander, M. (2012). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: The New Press. Michelle Alexander in her book, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" argues that law enforcement officials routinely racially profile minorities to deny them socially, politically, and economically as was accustomed in the Jim Crow era.

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Annotated Bibliography Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York: The New Press. Alexander opens up on the history of the criminal justice system, disciplinary crime policy and race in the U.S. detailing the ways in which crime policy and mass incarceration have worked together to continue the reduction and defeat of black Americans.

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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.

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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

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