Racial Segregation : The New Jim Crow

In the 1960’s, black and white individuals were not recognized as being equal. The two races were treated differently, and the African Americans did not enjoy the same freedoms as the whites. The African Americans never had a chance to speak their mind, voice their opinions, or enjoy the same luxuries that the white people attained. Through various actions/efforts like the lunch counter sit-ins, freedom rides, and bus boycotts, the black people confronted segregation face on and worked to achieve equality and freedom.

Many believe that civil rights movements have completely eradicated racial injustices and inequality in the United States. Michelle alexander disprove this myth in her book “The New Jim Crow.” Alexander claims racial caste did not die with slavery. She implies that the racial caste system in America has been reformed multiple times to meet “the needs and demands of current political climates” (alexander 52). She believes that mass incarceration which she refers to as “The New Jim Crow” is the current caste system in the United States. By elaborating on the history of racial caste in America and by including quotes from politicians such as Nixon and Lyndon Johnson, Alexander effectively persuades her reader that the United States has not achieved

Michelle Alexander’s the new Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness examine the Jim Crow practices post slavery and the mass incarceration of African-American. The creation of Jim Crows laws were used as a tool to promote segregation among the minority and white American. Michelle Alexander’s the new Jim Crow Mass takes a look at Jim Crow laws and policies were put into place to block the social progression African-American from the post-slavery to the civil rights movement. Fast-forward to 2008 the election of Barack Obama certified that African-Americans were no longer viewed as second-class citizens instead African-Americans are equal to their white counterparts. However, Michelle Alexander

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is a book by Michelle Alexander, a civil rights litigator and legal scholar. The book discusses race-related issues specific to African-American males and mass incarceration in the United States. Michelle Alexander (2010) argues that despite the old Jim Crow is death, does not necessarily means the end of racial caste (p.21). In her book “The New Jim Crow”, Alexander describes a set of practices and social discourses that serve to maintain African American people controlled by institutions. In this book her analyses is centered in examining the mass incarceration phenomenon in recent years. Comparing Jim Crow with mass incarceration she points out that mass incarceration is

In this book The New Jim Crow Michelle Alexander gives a look at history racism of African-Americans in relations to slavery and brings us to into modern day racism. Not racism as a form of calling people names or by the means of segregation which would be considered overt racism condemned by society but by colorblindness and by a racial caste system. Alexander argues African-Americans are being discriminated against in the form of mass incarceration. “Mass incarceration refers not only to the criminal justice system but also to the larger web of laws, rules, polices, and customs that control those labeled criminals both in and out of prison” (Alexander 2012, pg 14). Upon reading The New Jim Crow I believe African –

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is a book written by Michelle Alexander. This book explains the mass incarceration that African-American males faced in the United States. Alexander uses many examples of discrimination throughout the book, but the most prevailing one to me was how the criminal justice system used to the War on Drugs. Alexander describes a “racial caste system” as a way that African-Americans are kept at a lower social standing then the white people. The way that Alexander presents her arguments allows we the reader to see the true racism that was faced by African- Americans. This book gives many arguments but there are some main arguments that Alexander stresses throughout the book that

Michelle Alexander’s the new Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness examine the Jim Crow practices post slavery and the mass incarceration of African-American. The creation of Jim Crows laws where used as a tool to promote segregation among the minority and white American. Michelle Alexander’s the new Jim Crow Mass takes a look at Jim Crow laws and policies were put into place to block the social progression African-American from the post-slavery to the civil rights movement. Fast-forward to 2008 the election of Barack Obama certified that African-Americans where no longer viewed as second-class citizens instead African-Americans are equal to their white counterparts. However, Michelle Alexander (2012) points out that Jim Crow has reappeared in the form of mass incarceration and this legal form of incarceration is a mirror image of the Jim Crow laws post slavery.

We all think that racism is over at this point and time, but in reality it still remains the same. The discussion in “The New Jim Crow”: Michelle Alexander discussed so many facts about how society treats each race differently. Alexander’s research is very motivating to read. She paints a devastating picture of the new Jim Crow and how it functions in the world we live in. She uses images that make you cringe but at the same time persuades you that it is in fact all true. The topic that stood out the most to me was how our prison system condemns many African Americans to the second-class status. This meant that African American men are discriminated by the police and the criminal justice system. In my opinion I agree with her. The reason is because hundreds of thousands of African Americans have served time in prison as a result of drug convictions and are branded felons for life and the tendency for colorblindness to act as a shield over racist practices.

Upon being elected president in 1860, Abraham Lincoln sought the abolition of slavery. The Confederate states were against this, so they started a Civil War between them and the Union states. The Union states won, but the Confederate states did not take it lightly. The white people discriminated and segregated black people. The black people had separate schools, drinking fountains, and eating establishments. The Jim Crow Laws promoted segregation and violence and as time went on the Civil Rights Movement came about.

The New Jim Crow is a book that discusses how legal practices and the American justice system are harming the African American community as a whole, and it argues that racism, though hidden, is still alive and well in our society because of these practices. In the book, Michelle Alexander, author and legal scholar, argues that legal policies against offenders have kept and continue to keep black men from becoming first class citizens, and she writes that by labeling them as “criminals,” the justice system and society in general is able to act with prejudice against them and subordinate black Americans who were previously incarcerated, on probation, or on parole, by limiting their access to services as a result of their ‘criminal status’ and therefore, further degrading their quality of life. The New Jim Crow urges readers to acknowledge the injustice and racial disparity of our criminal justice system so that this new, more covert form of racism in society can be stopped.

Alexander is very specific in her book and does not use many generalization. The generalizations that are used throughout her book are careful in the sense that they cover only the material she needed to make her point to the audience. In her first chapter, Alexander tell the history of American slavery and Reconstruction Era, etc., which was generalized to help the readers understand where Michelle was coming from in her evidence that the Jim Crow still exists today. The fifth guideline is Expertise. Within her book, Michelle Alexander has stories from real people who have been through the process of the criminal justice system Jarvious Cotton and Drake are to name a couple. She also relies on the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who was imprisoned, for speaking out about the discrimination and leading the nation into Civil Rights Era. By reading, King’s words and learning about the system from those who have been in it and the hardships mass incarceration causes, Michelle Alexander can giver her readers first hand accounts of the negative effects that come from today’s discrimination. The last guideline from Baker, Anderson, and Dorn, is Objectivity. Michelle Alexander is objective for much of the book through the history and parallels of today’s Jim Crow and the original laws; however there were areas where she became subjective mainly when she was talking about her personal journey to realizing that Jim Crow has yet to

Racial discrimination in the United States has been a radical issue plaguing African Americans from as early as slavery to the more liberal society we see today. Slavery is one of the oldest forms of oppression against African Americans. Slaves were brought in from Africa at increasingly high numbers to do the so-called dirty work or manual labor of their white owners. Many years later, after the abolishment of slavery came the Jim Crow era. In the 1880s, acts known as the Jim Crow laws were enacted by Southern states to keep oppression of African Americans alive. These laws helped to legalize segregation between blacks and whites. Slavery and Jim Crow were created to regulate how African Americans functioned in society. Slaves were refused the right to vote, refused citizenship, refused education, and labeled as incompetent as a way for whites to keep what Author Michelle Alexander of the book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness calls “social control”. Alexander argues that mass incarceration is the new modern “racial caste system” of social control. She further goes on to claim that this new system of mass incarceration has replaced the old social systems that were used to oppress African Americans such as slavery and Jim Crow. The system of mass incarceration fueled by the War on Drugs was established as a form of racial control. This new system puts people of color into an endless cycle of

Segregation caused distress and anger between the races in America. Jim Crow laws segregated blacks and whites all throughout America. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) backed desegregation of public places 100% (Stokes 80). After the reconstruction period was over, America had extreme economical and industrial growth (“Racial Segregation” 2). Brown vs. Board also helped desegregate America in schools. Segregation affected many people in many ways and created violence and distress between blacks and whites within the country.

I agree with Michelle Alexander on her view of mass incarceration, as well as the new racial caste system that has evolved in the United States. She states that, “we have not ended racial caste in America, we have merely redesigned it”. After reading her book The New Jim Crow, her point of view on the age of colorblindness is extremely bold. Over time, it has developed into many forms. The racial systems have evolved from exploitation, to subordination, to marginalization. As a nation, we have remained in deep denial about the racial systems. Even though it may look like America is an egalitarian society, there is too much occurring “behind closed doors”, that is often overlooked.

As the movie begins you see there is some sort of public building that shows a disturbing image of segregation, by separation of the races with a water fountain for the whites and blacks, and a church that the audience can assume as a Negro church being burnt. This is a reality that shows its ugly face with the assumptions and rough realities for a normal day in the south during the earlier times during segregation which was very natural for the Jim Crow era, which is coming to an end.