The first chapter in The New Jim Crow called The Rebirth of Caste, Alexander talks about how even though slavery has passed and there are people still out there to keep our society divided. This was called racial hierarchy is a system of belief that some racial groups were either superior or inferior. The superior where considered the most powerful while this left the inferior at the bottom. As slavery left, the superior used the War on Drugs and mass incarcerations as a way to separate and control blacks once again but through the legal system. Alexander then comes into talking about the history before all this has happened. The beginning of slavery to when Jim Crow laws and practices were implemented but then outlawed because of the Civil Rights Movement. Eventually unjust treatment of blacks through the criminal justice system came to be allowed into society such as mass incarceration. Then moving on to the chapter called The Lockdown. Alexander then goes on to explain the system of mass incarceration. She goes on to talk about how black people are getting abused through the criminal justice system mainly …show more content…
Alexander begins to state that mass incarceration is what everyone presumes it to be. That black people are more likely to commit crimes and the way they look is another factor that plays into a stereotype. The media is no help to emphasizing the stereotype and ones who aren’t criminals or even look it suffer from it just because of their race. She then goes on to talk about how the life of crime can be seductive but whether you’re white or black there isn’t any evidence to suggest that a person of color would more likely chose the life of crime. She then explains the reality where whites are more likely to at some point in their lives chose to participate in illegal drug activity. This is because they are more likely to have the resources to support drug habits while blacks are less likely to be able to do
From the study, Michelle Alexander’s argument is true and correct that the mass incarcerations are just a representation of Jim Crow. The Jim Crow has just been redesigned as the blacks have continued to be mistreated and denied some of the rights and privileges that their counterparts enjoy. There is discernment against the African Americans towards different privileges which are essential to their lives. This discrimination is political as leaders steer operations that are aimed at racially discriminating people from particular groups of race.
The book, the Strange Career of Jim Crow is a wonderful piece of history. C. Vann Woodard crafts a book that explains the history of Jim Crow and segregation in simple terms. It is a book that presents more than just the facts and figures, it presents a clear and a very accurate portrayal of the rise and fall of Jim Crow and segregation. The book has become one of the most influential of its time earning the praise of great figures in Twentieth Century American History. It is a book that holds up to its weighty praise of being “the historical Bible of the civil rights movement.” The book is present in a light that is free from petty bias and that is shaped by a clear point of view that considers all facts equally. It is a book that will remain one of the best explanations of this time period.
We saw the Thirteenth Amendment occur to abolish slavery. We also saw the Civil Rights Acts which gave full citizenship, as well as the prohibiting the denial of due process, etc. Having the civil rights laws enabled African Americans to new freedoms which they did not used to have. There was positive change occurring in the lives of African Americans. However, there was still a fight to suppress African Americans and maintain the racial hierarchy by poll taxes and lengthy and expensive court proceedings. Sadly, this is when Jim Crow laws appeared. During this time African Americans were losing their stride, there was an increase in prison populations and convict labor, and the convicts were
Michelle Alexander in her book "The New Jim Crow" argues that Mass Incarceration is similar to Jim Crow; Alexander believes that caste systems such as Jim Crow and slavery are similar to the existing system of mass incarceration. In addition, Alexander accuses the U.S. criminal justice system, implying their laws undividedly target African Americans through the War on Drugs and racial limitation. In comparing mass incarceration with Jim Crow, Alexander points to compelling parallels regarding political disenfranchisement, legalized discrimination, and symbolic production of a race. Alexander, moreover, effectively offers a rebuttal to the counterargument that the New Jim Crow does not carry the same level of racial hostility as the Old Jim
The final chapter of The New Jim Crow reviews the manner in which the Black community might respond to the racism that exists today. Some research implies that we in America have reached a point of attrition as to incarceration and the positive effects outweighing the negative effects of marginalization and collateral damage to the community. By some research, the "War on Drugs" procreates poverty, joblessness, family breakdown, and crime.
Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow, as well as Eugene Jarecki’s documentary, The House I Live In, both discuss the controversial issues surrounding the War on Drugs, mass incarceration, and drug laws. Ultimately, both Alexander and Jarecki concede that the court systems have systematically hindered growth and advancement in black communities by targeting young African Americans, primarily male, that have become entangled in drugs due to their socioeconomic status. There is a disturbing cycle seen in black underprivileged neighborhoods of poverty leading to drug use and distribution to make money that inevitably ends with the person in question landing in prison before likely repeating these actions upon their release. Both Jarecki and Alexander present their case, asserting that the effects of the War on Drugs acted as a catalyst for the asymmetric drug laws and
The majority of our prison population is made up of African Americans of low social and economic classes, who come from low income houses and have low levels of education. The chapter also discusses the amount of money the United States loses yearly due to white collar crime as compared to the cost of violent crime. Another main point was the factors that make it more likely for a poor person to be incarcerated, such as the difficulty they would have in accessing adequate legal counsel and their inability to pay bail. This chapter addresses the inequality of sentencing in regards to race, it supplies us with NCVS data that shows less than one-fourth of assailants are perceived as black even though they are arrested at a much higher rate. In addition to African Americans being more likely to be charged with a crime, they are also more likely to receive harsher punishments for the same crimes- which can be seen in the crack/cocaine disparities. These harsher punishments are also shown in the higher rates of African Americans sentenced to
Today, more African American adults are under correctional control than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began (Alexander 180). Throughout history, there have been multiple racial caste systems in the United States. In her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander defines a “racial caste” as “a racial group locked into an inferior position by law and custom” (12). Alexander argues that both Jim Crow and slavery functioned as racial caste systems, and that our current system of mass incarceration functions as a similar caste system, which she labels “The New Jim Crow”. There is now a silent Jim Crow in our nation.
The fact that War on Drugs and incarceration is a rebirth of caste of America, is correct. If you are African- American you will go to prison because of the caste system. People choice to be what they want to be. Yet Michelle point is correct, human beings need to realize everyone is different. Problems are created because one it creates them. Also we talked about the nullification system in class, and is one way in solving racism in the justice system and the government. Michelle Alexander uses statistic through the book. She explains the difference from 1990s to today’s world. This makes it easier for the reader to tell the contrast.
This quote shows what a study found in Seattle, that the population in Seattle is seventy percent but most of the people in jail are blacks. Seattle has a problem where cocaine and crack are the main drugs being abused and sold, but the people who sell it the most are whites, but the majority who end up in jail for cocaine or crack charges are African Americans. Well this happens because black people do drugs but also white people, but the ones who are the victims of incarceration are blacks, this mainly due to the way the law enforcements act towards the poor colored communities. The issue arose from people that are non white abusing certain drugs, the drugs got outlawed every time a certain race abused it.
If someone is successful does not mean they didn’t have a hard time in their journey of being successful. That doesn’t mean the racial caste system doesn’t exist. Michelle Alexander argued in her book, “The New Jim Crow” that “the superlative nature of individual black achievement today is formerly white domains are a good indicator that old Jim Crow is dead, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the end of racial cast. In history is any guide, it many have simply taken a different form.” (21) I agree with Michelle Alexander that black individual who have nice nature are successful in white man’s world. It is good, but that doesn’t mean that black people are equal to white. One reason why I agree with Dr. Alexander, Jarvis Cotton was not allowed
Alexander makes an important distinction in this book, too. That is that criminals are the new version of slaves for our country – but they are the black male criminals, not all criminals. The structural racism designed to relegate the black popula...
“Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men's skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.”(Lyndon Johnson). For generations in the United Stated, ethnic minorities have been discriminated against and denied fair opportunity and equal rights. In the beginning there was slavery, and thereafter came an era of racism which directly impacted millions of minorities lives. This period called Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system up in till mid 1960s. Jim Crow was more than just a series of severe anti-Black laws, it became a way of life. Under Jim Crow, African Americans were positioned to the status of second class citizens. What Jim Crow did is represented the anti-Black racism. Further on, In 1970’s the term “War on Drugs” was coined by President Richard Nixon . Later President Ronald Reagan officially declared the current drug war. In reality the war had little to do with drug crime and a lot to do with racial politics. The drug war was part of a strategy of used by the government. The President identified drug abuse as national threat. Therefore, they called for a national anti-drug policy, the policy began pushing for the involvement of the police force and military in drug prohibition efforts. The government did believe that blacks or minorities were a cause of the drug problem. They concentrated on inner city poor neighborhoods, drug related violence, they wanted to publicize the drug war which lead Congress to devote millions of dollars in additional funding to it. The war on drugs targeted and criminalized disproportionably urban minorities. There for, “War on Drugs” results in the incarceration of one million Americans ...
Another reason racialized mass incarceration takes place is because of the high rates of poverty and unemployment for inner city African Americans, especially those with low-education and low skill levels. Urban ghettos have been associated with the problem of social disorganization and crime. The biggest reason for this is the war on drugs. There is no substantial proof that verifies African Americans are more involved in illegal drug consumptions than other groups are. However they are arrested more than other groups. Bobo and Thompson stated that blacks are almost 34% involved in drug-related arrests though only 14% of those are among regular illegal drug users. Among drug related convictions, African Americans make up half of the cases whereas only 26% of the white population is convicted. As Bobo and Thompson stated, “Illegal drug consumption seems to know no race. Incarceration for drug-related charges, however, is something visited in a heavily biased manner on African Americans.”
Alexander (2010) suggests mass incarceration as a system of racialized social control that functions in the same way Jim Crow did. She describes how people that have been incarcer...