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The New Jim Crow Thesis

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The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander published in 2012, is a 261 page book detailing how mass incarceration has become the new form of legalized discrimination. BACKGROUND A large cause for the writing of this book is that there is currently not much research or call for a criminal justice reform. According to Alexander the main goal of the book is to “stimulate a much-needed conversation about the role of the criminal justice system in creating and perpetuating racial hierarchy in the United States” (2012:16). Another premise for this research is that it is no longer socially correct to use race to discriminate against people, and Alexander argues that society as a whole is now using the …show more content…

This causes most laymen to not know or recognize the problem of colorblindness. Because the Jim Crow era is what we think racism looks like, it becomes easy for people to deny that it is still around today. The New Jim Crow operates from the War on Drugs in a seemingly race neutral fight. It begins with police being able to choose who they think should be stopped and questioned, continues into formal control where the defendant is put into prison or jail or put on parole or probation, then finishes with a time of “invisible punishment” which is when the ex-offender is barred from reentering society by norms and laws. Although incarceration has always been a problem, and has always been a racist system, it is not affecting more people than ever before—incarceration rates have been rising steadily and will continue to increase. One of the biggest parallels between the old Jim Crow and the new is that they both have defined the meaning and significance of race in America. However, one of the biggest differences between the two is that while Jim Crow seemed overtly race-based, but did have some key politicians who were in fact colorblind, mass incarceration is

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793 Words | 4 Pages

Mass Incarceration Through the Era of Colorblindness In the New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander portrayed a strong and provocative evaluation of the mass incarceration in the United States. When writing this book Alexander wanted to achieve to bring up a much needed conversation of the role that the criminal justice system had in the creation of this new racial caste system as well as show how the consequences of being labeled a felon have simply redesigned the old Jim Crow. She aimed towards the audience of other civil rights activists who hope to work towards racial justice, those of which she believes will be skeptical of what she has to say.

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1255 Words | 6 Pages

What constitutes the New Jim Crow and how does it impact the

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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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251 Words | 2 Pages

In the opening of the introduction of The New Jim Crow the author clearly outlines the power of one race to another for example how the great-great grandfather of Jarvis’s Cotton was denied to vote for being a slave (Alexander 2010). The great grandfather of Jarvis’s beaten to death by the Klan for attempting to vote (Alexander 2010) and Jarvis himself could not vote because he was labeled as a felon. Most offenders today that get out from prison face discrimination in voting, employment, housing and receiving public assistance linking toward the Jim Crow era. Most incarcerated individuals are still racially segregated which racial bias still exist in our criminal justice system today not only in the Southern states. Some people still believe

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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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1179 Words | 5 Pages

When the phrase Jim Crow is uttered, many people feel a rush of inept thoughts and bad memories due to the social taboo against talking of the lowest point in America’s history. Jim Crow was not just a set of laws aimed to oppress the lives of all black people, but a movement by the citizens, black or white, that caused a corrupt mindset in all men and women. Many people tried to stop the social force from continuing in individual spurts of courage, but they were not able to stop Jim Crow as individuals. An individual’s own personal courage cannot fight against Jim Crow, because a single person would not be able to stop an entire movement embedded into the minds of millions of people, not to mention how the social pressure against it was too strong to even fathom fighting against it.

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881 Words | 4 Pages

It highlights the system's persistent racial biases and systemic inadequacies, suggesting that racial superiority was maintained by discriminatory laws and practices even after slavery was legally abolished. Mass incarceration is shown in the movie as a modern form of racialized social control that promotes poverty, disenfranchisement, and institutional racism. Through interviews, it analyzes the catastrophic impact on individuals and communities, challenging viewers to critically evaluate the relationship between race, politics, and criminal justice, and arguing for serious reform and a reevaluation of cultural

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377 Words | 2 Pages

one person, it may not be evil to another. Nonetheless, social evil, evil acts, are done everyday and will continue to happen. Also because evil can be considered anything nowadays with an abundance of different belief systems in this country, and all over the world, evil acts are always happening and will continue to happen. Mass incarceration and police brutality are just a few social evils that are being committed in the United States that are really changing us as a society and what ‘The New Jim Crow’ has to do with it. As I stated before, social evils are issues in which in one way or another affects members of a society and is often considered controversial or problematic in terms of moral values.

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AP ENGLISH Per-7 Rajdeep SIngh The New Jim Crow By, Michelle Alexander Publisher-The New Press The book I have chosen is The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. This novel is basically telling us (the readers) that racism back then and the racism now has not changed much but it is improving.

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1640 Words | 7 Pages

In the “Cruel Hand,” Alexander addresses the impact of the legal and police system on race. The impacts of these institutions have clear impacts, like incarceration, but the unclear impacts occur after the incarceration ends. A person convicted of a crime “may be ineligible for many federally-funded health and welfare benefits, food stamps, public housing, and federal educational assistance. His driver’s license may be automatically suspended, and he may no longer qualify for certain employment and professional licenses. If he is convicted of another crime he may be subject to imprisonment as a repeat offender.

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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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562 Words | 3 Pages

Slavery is over therefore how can racism still exist? This has been a question posed countlessly in discussions about race. What has proven most difficult is adequately demonstrating how racism continues to thrive and how forms of oppression have manifested. Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, argues that slavery has not vanished; it instead has taken new forms that allowed it to flourish in modern society. These forms include mass incarceration and perpetuation of racist policies and societal attitudes that are disguised as color-blindness that ultimately allow the system of oppression to continue.

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938 Words | 4 Pages

Between 1877 and the mid to late 1960s, a racial caste system by the name of Jim Crow was put into action in the United States. Jim Crow was a series of extreme anti-black laws which were put into action in the hopes of segregating the whites and blacks in society. Although Jim Crow was present many decades previous, there still exists a form of racial caste system within the United States; this “new” Jim Crow is known as mass incarceration. Mass incarceration has led to a large number of black men to be incarcerated for crimes, such as drug crimes, that are more often than not ignored when committed by white individuals (Alexander, 2010). Today, more black men are imprisoned than at any other point in the history of the United States due to

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148 Words | 1 Pages

After reading the Jim Crow pieces, I conclude that the government and the people had a backwards way of thinking about race. One reason I think this is based on the scenario in the picture. In the V., E. picture the African American man was dressed in rags while Caucasian people in the background wearing fancy new clothes walked right by him without giving him a second glance. The second way I came to this conclusion was how the article painted the picture of how life was back then for African Americans. For example, the Supreme Court undermined the constitution so Caucasians could legally discriminate African Americans (Pilgrim 2).

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902 Words | 4 Pages

The current criminalization often leads to a great amount of racial disparity in arrests and prosecutions, which is a large factor in America's economically and ethically atrocious incarceration rates.

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