Annotated Bibliography For The New Jim Crow

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Criminal Justice Stevenson through his book has provided various examples that show that people of color and low-income individuals are more likely to be presumed fully prior to presenting their cases. The author has stated that executions are a good example of how norms and policies are used for the purposes of punishing and controlling the people of color For instance, he argues that one in three black people are expected to be sent to jail in their lifetime. Further on, eighty percent of people on death row are black while 65 percent of homicide victims are black.

Segregation in the American South has not always been as easy as determining black and white. In C. Vann Woodward’s book, “The Strange Career of Jim Crow” post-civil war in Southern America has truly brought the “Jim Crow” laws into light and the ultimate formation of segregation in the south. The book determines that there is no solid segregation in the south for years rather than several decades following the end of the American Civil War in 1865 where the South achieved a better stand on segregation and equality as compared to the North at this time. Racial segregation in the form of Jim Crow laws that divided the White Americans from the African Americans in almost every sense of daily life did not appear with the end of slavery but towards

The practice of segregation in American history was not black and white. Although technically segregation was the separation of the black and white races in American societies, it had a certain ambiguity and complexity that surrounded the practice. This ambiguity and complexity pertained mostly to its origin within American history. Though many people believe segregation was a practice throughout America emerging from Southern slavery in the 19th century, author C. Vann Woodward argues differently in his highly appraised historical work, The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Prior to the publication of The Strange Career of Jim Crow, Woodward worked very closely with individuals involved in the black community.

I attended a high school that is predominately of color, however, I don't remember a time when a teacher taught the students about systemic racism. So, I decided to take the matter into my own hands – I pressured my history teacher to talk about the issues that currently affect people of color. I recommended a book called "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander to be taught the last few weeks of school. Surprisingly, the teacher agreed to add the book to the curriculum. We talked about systemic racism, the school-to-prison pipeline, and the prison industrial complex.

In her article “The New Jim Crow,” Michelle Alexander powerfully argues that the American prison system has become a redesigned form of disenfranchisement of poor people of color and compares it to the racially motivated Jim Crow laws. She supports her assertions through her experiences as a civil rights lawyer, statistical facts about mass incarceration, and by comparing the continued existence of racial discrimination in America today to the segregation and discrimination during the Jim Crow laws. Alexander’s purpose is to reveal the similarities of the discriminatory and segregating Jim Crow laws to the massive influx of incarceration of poor people of color in order to expose that racism evolves to exist in disguised, yet acceptable forms

Michelle Alexander is a freelance writer, public speaker, and a consultant with advocacy organizations committed to ending mass incarceration. Alexander wrote her NAACP Image Award winning book called The New Jim Crow in 2011. Her book describes in depth details about racial justice and mass incarceration for people of color. “How could the War on Drugs operate in the discriminatory manner…when hardly anyone advocates or engages in explicit race discrimination” (Alexander, 2011, p. 102). Alexander asks this question and answers it as a whole throughout chapter 3.

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander is an eye opening book, drawing parallels between modern day America and some of the darkest times in American history. There are underlying themes that highlight and give evidence towards issues, throughout this entire book, that many Americans are unaware of are Institutionalized Racism, War on Drugs, and the Mass Incarceration of American minorities. Certain sections of this book really stood out to me and fascinated me. How could this be happening under so many people’s noses without being brought up?

Alexander’s book introduction addresses some of the injustices that minorities especially African Americans have to endure under the war on drugs. However, Alexander also points out that drug crimes are relatively low compared to other countries meaning that there is no correlation at all between rising efforts on law enforcement funding and declining crime rates. Alexander comes to the conclusion that the current criminal justice system is set up to keep social control over minorities. The New Jim Crow assignment has a total of twenty six questions.

In the opening of the introduction of The New Jim Crow the author clearly outlines the power of one race to another for example how the great-great grandfather of Jarvis’s Cotton was denied to vote for being a slave (Alexander 2010). The great grandfather of Jarvis’s beaten to death by the Klan for attempting to vote (Alexander 2010) and Jarvis himself could not vote because he was labeled as a felon. Most offenders today that get out from prison face discrimination in voting, employment, housing and receiving public assistance linking toward the Jim Crow era. Most incarcerated individuals are still racially segregated which racial bias still exist in our criminal justice system today not only in the Southern states. Some people still believe

one person, it may not be evil to another. Nonetheless, social evil, evil acts, are done everyday and will continue to happen. Also because evil can be considered anything nowadays with an abundance of different belief systems in this country, and all over the world, evil acts are always happening and will continue to happen. Mass incarceration and police brutality are just a few social evils that are being committed in the United States that are really changing us as a society and what ‘The New Jim Crow’ has to do with it. As I stated before, social evils are issues in which in one way or another affects members of a society and is often considered controversial or problematic in terms of moral values.

In this article, the Miller explores the connection of racial disparity between dark, Latinos and white in the American Criminal Justice structures. The article argues that the racial disparity occurs on the basis of wrongdoing, crime, and imprisonment on African American, Latinos as compared with whites. Additionally, it claims the relationship of race and crime rates that conclude that black, Latinos receive high severe punishment than whites. As indicated by the Miller, the crime rates for blacks are seven times higher than whites. It also measures the effect of the high crime rate on racial minorities that they face significant issue for kids, families, marriage, neighborhood inconvenience, and neediness.

Michelle Alexander, similarly, points out the same truth that African American men are targeted substantially by the criminal justice system due to the long history leading to racial bias and mass incarceration within her text “The New Jim Crow”. Both Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Michelle Alexander’s text exhibit the brutality and social injustice that the African American community experiences, which ultimately expedites the mass incarceration of African American men, reflecting the current flawed prison system in the U.S. The American prison system is flawed in numerous ways as both King and Alexander points out. A significant flaw that was identified is the injustice of specifically targeting African American men for crimes due to the racial stereotypes formed as a result of racial formation. Racial formation is the accumulation of racial identities and categories that are formed, reconstructed, and abrogated throughout history.

“Of those students, black and Hispanic students made up more than 70 percent.” (Washington Post) The deaths of Freddie Gray, Trayvon Martin and John Brown and the outrage these cases stirred, proves that racism does exist in the criminal justice system. Therefore, to prevent racial disparity in the criminal justice system it is crucial that America steps up in changing the way that officers respond to a victim of another race, reducing discriminatory mindsets, and lessening the victimizing that is set on these other groups of people.

The United States criminal justice system is diminishing millions of lives every day. Ironically, the amount of inequalities that the criminal justice system portrays goes against the term ‘justice’. There is a 33% chance that a black male will end up in jail in his lifetime, while white males have a 6% chance. There are 4,749 black males incarcerated while there are only 703 white males. Prisons receive revenue of 1.65 billion dollars per year which makes them willing to incarcerate anyone that they can (“Enduring Myth of Black Criminality”).

Coker gives great evidence that supports racial injustice in the criminal justice system. She discusses on the Supreme Court’s rulings and accusations of racial preference in the system. This article is helpful because it supports my thesis on race playing a role on the system of criminal justice. Hurwitz, J., & Peffley, M. (1997). Public perceptions of race and crime: The role of racial stereotypes.