Summary: The New Jim Crow

In The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander maps out the parallels between the old Jim Crow system and the new racial caste system of mass incarceration. There are many profound similarities between these two systems, such as historical parallels, closing the courthouse doors, and racial segregation.

In today’s modern world, many people would be surprised to find out that there is still a racial caste system in America. After witnessing the election of a black president, people have started believing that America has entered a post-racial society. This is both a patently false and dangerous mindset. The segregation and stigma of race is still very much alive in our society. Instead of a formalized institution such as slavery or Jim Crow, America has found a new way to continue the marginalization of blacks by using the criminal justice system. In Michelle Alexander’s book “ The New Jim Crow”, she shows how America’s “ War on Drugs “ has become a tool of racial segregation and how the discretionary enforcement of drug laws has

C. Vann Woodward illuminates one of the “ugliest” aspects of American societal history in his book The Strange Career of Jim Crow. His book is an overview of the development of the Jim Crow system, a set of racist laws put in place around the turn of the nineteenth century. Interestingly his book tracks the evolution of racism throughout American history. He not only shows where and when racism is developing but the different ways that the racism manifested itself in the North and South.

Racism in the United States has not remained the same over time since its creation. Racism has shifted, changed, and shaped into unrecognizable ways that fit into the fabric of the American society to render it nearly invisible to the majority of Americans. Michelle Alexander, in her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness shatters this dominantly held belief. The New Jim Crow makes a reader profoundly question whether the high rates of incarceration in the United States is an attempt to maintain blacks as an underclass. Michelle Alexander makes the assertion that “[w]e have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it” using the criminal justice system and colorblind rhetoric. (Alexander 2). The result is a population of Black and Latino men who face barriers and deprivation of rights as did Blacks during the Jim Crow era. Therefore, mass incarceration has become the new Jim Crow.

In The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander develops a compelling analogy on how mass incarceration is similar to the Jim Crow era, and is a “race-making institution.” She begins her work with the question, “Where have all the black men gone?” (Alexander, 178) She demonstrates how the media and Obama have failed to give an honest answer to this question, that the large majority of them or in prison. She argues that in order to address this problem, we must be honest about the fact that this is happening, and the discrimination with the African American communities that is putting them there.

The third critical book review for this class takes a look at “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander published in 2012 by the New York Press. This book analyzes the problem with the incarceration system in the United States today that unfairly affects the African American community. This incarceration system is continuing to separate families, strip men of their freedom, and effectually make them into second class citizens upon release from prison as “free” men. She even describes that those who are convicted of these crimes are “relegated to a racially segregated and subordinated existence” (Pg. 4). Michelle Alexander is not only a published author but is also an active Civil Rights activist all while currently employed as an associate professor of law at Ohio State University. It is a very interesting read that coincides with where our class discussions have recently been. It argues that we as a country have not ended racial discrimination but just transformed it into a new type of caste system. It is an eye opening book that created an uncomfortable feeling while reading due to my level of ignorance on this topic prior to taking this class. I believe that this book will serve as an important narrative into fixing the race problems in this country because it brings to light what needs to be fixed. If any progress is made it will be because of books like this that expose the problems but starting to fix them will be the next step.

Though most citizens in the United States would agree that the prison system in the U.S. needs to be amended, do they see the prison system as a way to enforce the racial caste system? At first Michelle Alexander, the author of The New Jim Crow, did not see the prison systems as racially motivated until doing further research. After researching the issue, Alexander found the prison system was a way to oppress African Americans and wrote the novel The New Jim Crow. The New Jim Crow follows the history of the racial caste system and in the novel Alexander comes to the conclusion that the mass incarceration of African American is the New Jim Crow, or in other words a new system of black oppression. Though some might try to refute the idea of mass incarceration of African Americans, Alexander offers a well thought out argument with substantial evidence and data to compellingly link Jim Crow and mass incarceration and proves that it is an issue that should be on the radar of all U.S. citizens.

Racism is a thing of the past, or is it? Michelle Alexander’s, “The New Jim Crow,” main focus is on mass incarceration and how it occurs in an era of color blindness. Alexander also focuses on the social oppressions that African Americans have suffered throughout the years, until now. In this essay, I will discuss how the system of control was constructed, Alexander’s compelling historical analysis, and if the current system would be easier to dismantle. I would like to start by delving into how the system of control was constructed.

As Elie Wiesel once stated, “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented” (“Elie Wiesel Quote”). Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow, which discusses criminal justice and its role in mass incarceration, promotes a similar idea regarding silence when America’s racial caste system needs to be ended; however, Alexander promotes times when silence would actually be better for “the tormented.” The role of silence and lack of silence in the criminal justice system both contribute to wrongly accused individuals and growing populations behind bars.

This “war on drugs,” which all subsequent presidents have embraced, has created a behemoth of courts, jails, and prisons that have done little to decrease the use of drugs while doing much to create confusion and hardship in families of color and urban communities.1,2Since 1972, the number of people incarcerated has increased 5-fold without a comparable decrease in crime or drug use.1,3 In fact, the decreased costs of opiates and stimulants and the increased potency of cannabis might lead one to an opposing conclusion.4 Given the politics of the war on drugs, skyrocketing incarceration rates are deemed a sign of success, not failure. I don’t totally agree with the book (I think linking crime and black struggle is even older than she does, for instance) but I think The New Jim Crow pursues the right line of questioning. “The prison boom is not the main cause of inequality between blacks and whites in America, but it did foreclose upward mobility

Michelle Alexander throughout her book introduces us to the way the “New Jim Crow”works in today's society. This new jim crow can be taken as a racial caste throughout the United States. She defines this undercaste as “A lower caste of individuals who are permanently barred by law and custom from mainstream society (Alexander pg 13) Not only does this have to do because of mass incarceration rates among black men, but it also adds to the effects of what the branded felons must face beyond the prison walls. She mentions this early on in her book that

We find that the case does in fact violate the precedent Batson v. Kentucky which violated the 14th amendment protection clause. First the prosecutor had the intention to get rid of all juries that were black. One of the reasons is that in the prosecutor’s notes, the prosecutor have highlighted and marked with a “B” for anyone who was black. In addition the prosecutor had placed all of the black jurors on the “Definite NOs” list. On the list that the prosecutor had no white jurors were on the list. Finally the prosecutor had the names of the black jurors circled on his list. All of this violates the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment where everyone should be treated equally regardless of their

Michelle Alexander believes that African American still suffer from discrimination. Michelle Alexander is a civil rights spokeswoman, professor, lawyer, and scholar. She was born on October 7, 1967. She graduated from Vanderbilt University and Stanford Law School. She began to look more deeply into issues of criminal justice reform and started a campaign against racial profiling while at the Racial Justice Project for the ACLU in Northern California. She worked at a private law firms specializing in plaintiff-side class-action lawsuits regarding racial and gender discrimination. She then later became a writer. In The New Jim Crow she explained the prejudice that black people face in America. She stated that while slavery ended in the civil war, racial discrimination was legally retain in pro-laws. These laws in southern states separated blacks and whites. She highlighted that the Jim Crow was over turn in the mid twentieth centuries thanks to the civil rights movements. Alexander argue that despite this, new law enforcement has continued in different forms. The criminal justice system is not what it seems to be. The war on drugs is the main problem that increase mass incarceration.

The New Jim Crow was written by Michelle Alexander, a civil rights lawyer and activist. The overall claim she makes is that although we have gotten rid of Jim crow laws and all the other laws that are clearly and out in the open racial laws, the laws that exist today still push the agenda of restricting people of color from participating in our government, from owning a house in a certain neighborhood, from having public benefits and so much more (Alexander 2).

African American has been through serious events throughout the decades, even now there is still racism between races sadly. The Jim Crows Laws were created in 1876, it was created after the Civil War. The Jim Crow Laws were extreme and horrible, they would separate the blacks from whites from basically everything you can think of. They would have signs saying white or colored, this applied to all colored young and old, doesn’t matter what age. Only their skin color would affect how they were treated, the lighter the skin the better it was to them, back then it didn’t matter how you were as a person but how you look like which is pretty terrifying to think about.