Summary: The New Jim Crow

Alexander describes the war on drugs as the new Jim Crow because of how its policies disproportionately target and affect African Americans-reinforcing and deepening racial divisions in America. She notes that there are currently more African Americans in correctional control today than there were enslaved in the 1850s, and that the majority of African American men in metropolitan areas have criminal records. This is reminiscent of Jim Crow because of the implications of having a felony record. Convicted felons cannot participate in the right to vote, jury service, are ineligible for public benefits such as food stamps, and are faced with employment and housing discrimination. These limitations on liberty are in practice the same as the Jim

In communities like Chicago where 80% of African American men have records (Alexander, p. 9), it is apparent that the jury will not be representative of the broader community. This again excludes felons from participating in the system which directly impacts them, and reinforces a social caste system which benefits white Americans who have the power to decide the guilt of those in the lower castes in the setting of a court room. In other words, African American defendants are unlikely to be judged by a true jury of their peers according to Wakefield and Ugen. This is similar to the practice of using trumped up charges to imprison and control freed African Americans discussed in the film “Slavery by Another Name” where elite whites controlled the corrections process and arbitrarily decided guilt based on little other than

Shelter is one of the most basic human needs and rights, particularly in a country as developed as America. What is expected of someone who cannot find a job, stable housing, or receive financial help for essentials to live such as something as simple as food? It is no wonder that people often recidivate after being released from prison with access to legitimate opportunities being so low and social stratification being so high. On top of this, Alexander notes that most felony convictions come with intensive fees and fines. These are difficult to pay when one has trouble finding a job and cannot receive food stamps, thus trapping a person in the systems of corrections due to their debts. This is reminiscent of another point discussed in “Slavery by Another Name” where freed slaves were forced into labor to pay off manufactured debts by elite whites in order to gain free labor. In other words, elites profiting off of a system of incarceration which targets African Americans is as common today as it was in the late