“The New Jim Crow” Book Report
In the book “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” author Michelle Alexander writes about the issue of how mass incarceration of black Americans influences the growing instability of their civil rights. Along with highlighting the issue of mass incarceration, she thoroughly emphasizes the growing social/racial gaps, and the War on Drugs during the era of colorblindness. She similarly conveys the increasingly noticeable stride the country has made towards creating “second class citizens.” Alexander’s book highlights injustices found in both the criminal justice system and society as a whole making the topic extremely controversial among the American population.
Michelle Alexander is a well known civil rights advocate and legal scholar. Alexander has taught at several prestigious schools including Stanford Law School, where she was an associate professor of law, as well as director of the Civil Rights Clinics. She also taught at Ohio State University similarly as an associate professor of law and “currently holds a joint appointment at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity,” as noted on the website of her recently published book, The New Jim Crow. In addition to many positions within the academia system, she served as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun. Alexander begins her work by describing her motivation to write The New Jim Crow book. During her experiences working for the ACLU out of Oakland she saw not only the racial bias in the criminal justice system but how the system itself was constructed in a way to render people of color second-class citizens much in the way Jim Crow laws of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries did. Ultimately, Alexander’s lawful background has come to introduce her to the many racial and social injustices in our nation, motivating her to write a book emphasizing such instances lacking equality and justice in hopes of educating others on the prevailing issue.
Before understanding the core message of the book, one must fully grasp the notion of the past Jim Crow Laws. Throughout the time period between the end of Reconstruction and the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement (1877-1965), laws regarding racial segregation began imposing restrictions on free African Americans. These segregation laws ranged from having separate drinking fountains for colored people to the extremes of not being able to vote, or being forced to go to segregated schools. Although these laws were not prescribed politically, the social support of the Jim Crow restrictions nearly induced the same impact of a criminal law, hence the name. In hopes of keeping any level of control similar to that of a slave owner over the slaves, the white majority of America began to thoroughly enforce these social inhibiting laws. In Alexander's book, she makes the comparison of present day social injustices to that of the Jim Crow Laws- while also acknowledging some differences such as the growing acceptance of colorblindness and the lack of supporting activism.
Similar to the social inequality built around Jim Crow Laws, Alexander writes to portray the continuous issue in today's society. The book conveys the theory that the new Jim Crow began in 1980, carrying on until roughly 2008- implying the late 20th century up until the early 21st to stand as the center time frame for Alexander’s writing. As the United States evolved in time, so did the issue at hand. Alexander begins the book through a historical timeline, ranging from times of slavery and the Civil War to the Reconstruction and Jim Crow Laws to the Civil Rights Movement up until present day. An excerpt from the book reading “it is fair to say we have witnessed an evolution in the United States from a racial caste system based entirely on exploitation (slavery), to one based largely on subordination (Jim Crow), to one defined by marginalization (mass incarceration),” thoroughly describes the lacking change in the country. Throughout the years, the minorities have continuously faced a struggle with social and political acceptance, inclusion, and equality. Alexander describes how the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 sparked the start of America’s War on Drugs. The capitalized movement stood to increase the punishment and connection minorities (more specifically poor blacks) had with drugs in order to satisfy the powerful whites of the country. The War on Drugs and colorblindness of the judicial/criminal system eventually led to the creation of a minimum sentence for drug related crimes, directly influencing the mass incarceration of targeted minorities. With the peak of mass incarceration immediately came the noticeable impacts of the New Jim Crow. As victims of the mass incarceration motive began to be released, the unjust social limitations became easily identifiable. Socially, these individuals are left facing the marginalized truth of a racist culture. Basic rights such as voting and public housing are revoked, increasing the negative stigma these felons are forced to forever live with. Ultimately, this cycle of racism, mass incarceration, and social injustices has continued on in a cyclical like pattern, growing to impact many American minorities.
Personally, I strongly agree with Alexander’s stance on the issue. Considering America is one of the most powerful countries, it’s a shock to notice the true racial and social injustices that prevail in the nation everyday. From subliminal promotions of racial triumphs such as Confederate monuments to the treatment of minorities and felons, racist aspects continue to increase in society. Equality has become an unrecognizable aspect of American society; an easy test to this theory would be by simply comparing the incarceration height of blacks to whites. Although many will reject any claim of racism in society, the negative aspect has come to thrive in America. Ultimately, the social need for acceptance, value, and love is non existent for African Americans or Blacks, limiting the success towards the fulfillment of self esteem. As highlighted in The New Jim Crow, racism in today's society has become a prevailing issue forcing many to face a lacking sense of belonging in their own country. The corrupted idea of our criminal justice system has lead to the acceptance of justified racism and marginalization, emphasizing the truth and importance behind Alexander’s center claim.
Although the issue may seem clear to readers, Alexander emphasizes the deeper issue we as a country are currently faced with: denial. The quote by Alexander reading “we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it,” emphasizes the true issues of ignorance within the continuity behind racial issues. The willful ignorance of most Americans allows the colorblindness of the situation to reject the truth behind society’s modern day Jim Crow situations. While the book provides detailed evidence in support of the socially neglected issue, the controversy is built upon denial and ignorance. Those who do not support the writing of Alexander are most likely those who are naive to the extent of the issue. Without the willingness to address the true situation, controversy is left to prevail, leading to political gridlock on the issue.