The New Jim Crow Summary

The New Jim Crow is a wake-up call in the midst of a long slumber of indifference to the poor and vulnerable. This book is a genuine resurrection of the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. amid the confusion of the Age of Obama. The Age of Obama is a time of historic breakthroughs at the level of symbols and political surfaces. Alexander’s subtle analysis shifts our attention from the racial symbol of America’s achievement to the actual substance of American’s shame and the massive use of state power to incarcerate hundreds of thousands of poor black males and females in the name of the bogus “war on drugs.’ Alexander takes us through the historical narrative tracing the unconscionable treatment and brutal control of black people from slavery

to Jim Crow, and mass incarceration, through the use of political strategies and structures of the caste system that is alive in the age of colorblindness. The very discourse of colorblindness left America blind to the New Jim Crow. Today this discourse of colorblindness has persisted under both Republican and Democratic administration and remains to this day hardly acknowledge or examined in our nation’s public discourse. Once you read The New Jim Crow, you are now awakened to a dark and ugly reality that has been in place for decades and that is continuous with the racist underside of American history from the advent of slavery onward. The social movement fanned and fueled by this book is a democratic awakening that says we do care, that the racial cast system must be dismantled, that we need a revolution in our warped prorates, a transfer of power from oligarchs to the people, and that we are willing to live and die to make it so. This is one of few books that I’ve read outside of the academic arena, and this is the second time it has been assigned for class. Each time I read it, I seem to get more out of it. When I read it the first time for pleasure, it was a good read, however when I was required to read it for scholarship discussion I managed to dig deeper into my critical thinking and I was able to uncover more meaning from the reading because this time, I have more academic knowledge on the subject at hand and I’m reading it through the critical race theory lens.. As I think about it, you don’t read the Bible just once, you continue to read it for a better understanding. Of all things I noticed, what stood out most was in the preface. Alexander says that she hopes this book empowers me to speak truth with greater conviction, credibility and courage. Often throughout my graduate studies I quote her. Along with Alexander, Reiman and Leighton’s The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison, and Spence’s With Justice for None, these are three of my greatest assets in my reading collection.
Many generations have haven’t been able to vote for one reason or another. Originally blacks were not able to vote because they were slaves, and after they were emancipated they were denied the privilege to vote, after blacks were granted voting rights, many were threatened by the KKK and intimidated by others not to vote, and fast forward to today, they cannot vote because of lost privileges due to prison incarceration. Today’s reason is much more unacceptable because it does not apply to all Blacks. It only applies to some Blacks and only in some territories. Most formerly incarcerated felons cannot vote, however there are some that can. Some currently incarcerated people in some states have the right to vote where as some do not in other states. These loss of rights affects most in ways that are directly related to their day to day life. When most people think about voting, the most obvious comes to mind, and that is picking certain representatives, from judges, city and state officials, to the president. However these aren’t the only things on the ballot. Some of the more personal things are on the ballot like whether you want to vote for fluoride in your water, or where you would like to allocate your taxes. An extraordinary percentage of black men in the United States are legally barred from voting today just as they have been throughout most of American history. They are also subject to legalized discrimination in employment, housing, education, public benefits, and jury service, just as their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents once were. Today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all of the ways that it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans, and it is accomplished through the criminal justice system. The racial caste system has not been eliminated, it has only been redesigned. Once you’re labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination are suddenly legal. At least in the old forms of discrimination, families were pretty much intact, even though they live at or below the poverty level. Fathers were able to come home to their children, even if they lived in public housing. Menial labor was available to provide something to the home, even if it wasn’t much. Today in a world of technology, not many menial jobs are available. Because most on the job sites deal directly with the public, formerly incarcerated felons are not deemed suitable for these jobs. Mothers were able to still provide food and shelter for the kids. As it stands now, if for any reason a mother is arrested and convicted for a drug charge, whether the drugs were hers or not, the children lose their benefits too.
Alexander address the issues of our still separate and unequal education system, as well as the problems that plague poor communities of color, including problems associated with crime and rising incarceration rates.

She addresses this era as the New Jim Crow, with its new racial caste system. What caught her attention was a poster that read “The Drug War Is The New Jim Crow.” A racial group was holding a meeting about police brutality, the new three-strikes law in California, and the expansion of America’s prison system. The misuse of the criminal justices system is a form of racialized social control having a remarkable similarity to Jim Crow. Once released, formerly incarcerated felons are confined to mainstream society, and denied access to the mainstream economy. They are forced into second-class citizenship. The war on drugs is a racist conspiracy to put blacks back in their place. This war was launched during a time when there was no real crisis, drug use was actually on a decline, plus the war only accomplished the incarceration of a large mass of people, primarily people of color. On top of that, the drug use did not go down, as that was the intentions and purpose for the war. It is assumed that the war on drugs was in response to the crack epidemic, however Ronald Regan launched the war prior to this. In the late 80’s the war on drugs policy went from just an ambition to an actual war. The war was geared towards the wrong people. The drugs themselves came from different countries. Instead of cutting off the supply, the government decided to arrest small time dealers and users. I remember in the late 80’s drug movies became popular, and at some point in the movie it was always stated that coca plants weren’t grown in these urban inner

cities.
It is known that young white men engage in drug crimes just as much as blacks, however the prison system does not reflect this fact. In major cities wracked by the drug war, as many as 80 percent of young African American men now have criminal records and are subject to legalized discrimination for the rest of their lives. They are part of an under caste, permanently locked up and locked out of mainstream society. The institutions create crime more than they prevent it, prisons do not deter crime significantly.
Civil rights advocates devote much or their time and resources trying to maintain affirmative action and as a result, things like prisons being filled by black and brown men are not given much attention. Even though criminal justice reform work is done through the Racial Justice Project most of its concentration is on affirmative action. Elected leaders of the African American community also does not pay much attention to criminal justice reform. There are some that look at re-entry and felon disenfranchisement laws. There has been attention paid to zero tolerance laws that are greatly affecting our youths. Racial profiling has also become a hot topic. Most especially since the killing of our unarmed black youth are on the rise.
Alexander names mass incarceration and not attacks on affirmative action, as the most damaging manifestation of the backlash against the Civil Rights Movement. Racial cast as used in the book refers to a stigmatized racial group locked into an inferior position by law and custom. The criminal justice system is a gateway into a system of racialized stigmatization and marginalization. The new system not only locks people behind actual bars, but also behind virtual bars and walls. When it comes to upward mobility it is easy to focus on the structural environment, but what Alexander points out is that a huge percentage of Africans Americans are not free to move up at all. It is not just that they lack opportunity, attend poor schools, or are plagued by poverty. They are barred by law from doing so. The major institutions they come into contact with are designed to prevent their mobility. It is noted that the current system of control depends on black exceptionalism. Racial caste systems do not require racial hostility or overt bigotry to thrive. They need only racial difference, as Martin Luther king Jr. warned more than forty-five years ago. Some state legislatures have repealed or reduced their mandatory drug sentencing laws, not because it’s the right thing to do, but because it is becoming very costly to them, most especially in a time of economic crunch. Just because these times are reduced does not change the caste system because it is based on the prison label and not prison time.