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Review Of Mass Incarceration In The Age Of Colorblindness By Michelle Alexander

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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. 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). Mass Incarceration: Transforming an Unconstitutional System. Guild Notes, 40(4), 12. Brad Broussard in his article, Mass …show more content…

He supports his claim by first analyzing the role politics played in mass incarceration, as well as how media portrayals incited reactions and misrepresented minorities, then he determines how public opinion affected policy, and finally, he addresses the degree to which punitiveness caused the rise and fall of support for mass incarceration. Enns ' book is helpful to my research paper because it examines the racial disparities in sentencing, as well as, discriminatory attitudes and perspectives that determine

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In Michelle Alexander’s book, she argues that mass incarceration is a huge form of racialized social control. While most agree with her that many more black men are put in prison than white men, some also agree that discrimination can arise in public situations, not just in prison. Based on my own experience in public school and in my community, I have seen just how other people of color are discriminated in society too. Alexander concentrates her main points on the racism and discrimination of blacks more than any

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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,

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Jim Crow, slavery and the mass incarceration are system of laws, and policies to maintain power inferiority among people of color. Alexander asserts that colorblindness cause Jim Crow to “continue” to exist. Specifically, the U.S Supreme court is not interested in how severe the racism is and its impacts. Therefore, racial injustice continues to exist, and that mass incarceration is like the Jim

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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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In Michelle Alexander’s book, “The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness,” Alexander addresses a topic that many may not know is happing. Alexander addresses the racism towards people of color by using the legal system as a tool to legally segregate people of color as well as poor whites. Alexander touches upon the way politicians use the war on drugs as an excuse to build more jails to incarcerate poor people of color. She also talks about the way police use racial profiling.

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We live in a society where ethnic minorities are target for every minimal action and/or crimes, which is a cause to be sentenced up to 50 years in jail. African Americans and Latinos are the ethnic minorities with highest policing crimes. In chapter two of Michelle Alexander’s book, The Lockdown, we are exposed to the different “crimes” that affects African American and Latino minorities. The criminal justice system is a topic discussed in this chapter that argues the inequality that people of color as well as other Americans are exposed to not knowing their rights. Incarceration rates, unreasonable suspicions, and pre-texts used by officers are things that play a huge role in encountering the criminal justice system, which affects the way

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Michelle Alexander, a civil rights lawyer and legal scholar, argues not only that mass incarceration is a “well-disguised system of racialized social control that functions in a manner strikingly similar to Jim Crow"(4), but that the prison label placed on convicts is “more damaging to the African American community than the shame and stigma associated with Jim Crow’ (17). While I had previous knowledge of the systematic racial oppression that continues to hold power in our country, I did not have any idea of to what extent the label of ‘felon’ has on the life

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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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As our society has grown in a multitude of ways, it has remained the same concerning the systematic treatment of minority groups, especially African American people. Michelle Alexander, the author of The New Jim Crow, writes about how America has encouraged and allowed the rebirth of a new caste system through implementation of mass incarceration (2011). The creation of this new system, only backed the critical race theory that argues white racism is constructed socially and historically in America (Simba 2015). She outlines that slavery and Jim Crow laws have been redesigned into the war on drugs which has allowed the police to target communities of color and therefore keep blacks in a position of inferiority. Many factors come into play

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The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for several reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. This literature review will discuss the ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system and how mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism has become a problem.

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At the start of the 1970s, incarceration appeared to be “a practice in decline.” One of the largest problems facing the world today is the mass incarceration of African Americans, where many arrest African Americans as they claim they appear more threatening. The government has done us wrong; it can avoid these consequences without the imprisonment of these innocent people for such diminutive crimes. These harsh conditions affect many more than just the families, communities, and individuals, but also the economy as confinement has tremendous costs on society. The sad but true reality proves that any White person can do things far more extreme than a “black person.”

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America has had a dark past, specifically when it comes to white versus black America. In the academic article “Redesigning Racial caste in America bias Mass Incarceration”, author Gilda Graff highlights this, by pointing out specific instances and reactions of whites to the civil rights movement that have led to what we see now (2-3). Specifically, she mentions how as America’s crack down on crimes, has led to a disproportionate increase in the incarceration of African Americans. An example she gives is the war on drugs, which was a large part of Regan’s Presidency, yet most people at the time felt drug issues were not of great importance; instead the war on drugs served as a way to address the white community’s concerns about race (3-4). The result of targeting crimes that disproportionately affect blacks is a law enforcement agency that becomes warry of black Americans.

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Legalized Discrimination is Contributing to Mass Incarceration Mass incarceration has been an issue for decades, with no clear solution in sight. One major turning point in the development of mass incarceration, based on reading The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, is the idea of legalized discrimination. Alexander said, “What is painfully obvious when one steps back from individual cases and specific policies is that the system of mass incarceration operated with stunning efficiency to sweep people of color off the streets, lock them in cages, and then release them into an inferior second-class status” (pg. 100). This idea of legalized discrimination allows police officers to intentionally target black individuals because of prejudices

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Michelle Alexander demonstrates in her book The New Jim Crow that systemic criminalization extends to other minority groups as well. The extent of this criminalization is shown through the control the criminal justice system exerts on minority lives. Alexander shows in The New Jim Crow that 1 in 3 young African American men are under the control of the criminal justice system through jail, prison, probation, or parole (9). Additionally, black men are 6 times more likely than white men to be incarcerated, and Latino men are 2.5 times more likely to be incarcerated than white men (Coalition on Homelessness, 56). The increased exposure to the criminal justice system that black and Latino men face not only threatens their future through the establishment of a criminal record, but it also reinforces ideas that black and Latino men are more criminally disposed than white men.

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