Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In The Age Of Color Blindness By Michelle Alexander

Crime, Citizenship, and the Court’s analyzation of Incarceration, Inequality, and Imagining Alternatives have revealed the prevalent racial profiling that exists in the African American community. Bruce Western emphasizes the prominent levels of incarceration in minority neighborhoods elaborating on the negative effects that these rates have on families, communities, and lifestyles. He reiterates that “incarceration deepens inequality because its negative social and economic effects are concentrated in the poorest communities” (Western, 297). When we analyze Fox News media portrayals of Martin, we could begin to understand why African Americans change their methods of transportation, clothing, and routines. These men adapt to the reality of racial profiling in fear that one day, they may contribute to the high incarceration rates within their communities.

According to Alexander, “Today, most American know and don’t know the truth about mass incarceration” (p. 182). Before reading this book I did know of the inequality towards people of color in the criminal justice. book has made me realized how easily we as humans, jump into conclusion without thinking twice and judging a person by their look or race without trying to get who they are. Although most people know better and know how wrong it is to judge a book or person on their cover we often find ourselves doing just that when we first come into contact with a different culture. This book “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander has made me realized how the United State has one of the largest population in prison.

Over the last thirty years, the prison population in the United States has increased more than seven-fold to over two million people, including vastly disproportionate numbers of minorities and people with little education. For some racial and educational groups, incarceration has become a depressingly regular experience, and prison culture and influence pervade their communities. Almost 60 percent of black male high school drop-outs in their early thirties have spent time in prison. In Punishment and Inequality in America, sociologist Bruce Western explores the recent era of mass incarceration and the serious social and economic consequences it has wrought.

It is an existing theory that our society is constructed via racial dimensions, and that racial equality is a figment of the imagination. This very principle is highlighted in Michelle Alexander’s novel, “The New Jim Crow.” The specific dimensions covered within the text include the unjust aspects of the federal drug policy, and by connection that of mass incarceration as well. Alexander claims that racism is still very prominent in present day society and is direct and frank about the heavy influence of white supremacy. One of the main arguments pushed by Alexander in this book is that mass incarceration is “ a stunningly comprehensive and well-disguised system of racialized social control that functions in a manner strikingly similar

In this article Nagel discusses an era of “the new Jim Crow” where racism ad sexism is appernt in the United States jail system. Nagel uses statistics to show how the prison population is growing to be black women and more gilrs than there are men. Nagel disccuses ways inpoliticans look at racial discrepancy ehrn sentencing. Her end argument is that it is time to transform our jail and justice system so that a black and female life can be considered a human life in the United States. This academic journal article will help support my argument that most of the politicians use the fact that these immigrants or people of color are dangerous and need to be kept off the streets as a political campaign to keep the white minority “safe”.

Alexander uses the statistics of how a black man is more likely to face punishment from law enforcement. By using proven facts Alexander better informs the readers how the racial caste system works in law enforcement. Ultimately, Michelle Alexander persuades the audience with stories of the injustice African Americans face because of the wrongful use of incarceration in the United States of America. She also uses the statistics for her readers to have a full understanding that she is Ray 2 finding the evidence to support her claims that America has the highest incarceration rate in

She first supports her claim by chronicling America 's history of institutionalized racism and systematic disenfranchisement of African Americans. Then, she discusses America 's War on Drugs that disproportionately targets minorities and finally as she examines the hardship faced by felons she compares and contrasts Jim Crow Laws to mass incarceration. Alexander surmises that mass incarceration is designed to maintain white supremacy and sustain a racial classification system. Alexander 's book is relevant to my research paper because she provides evidence that the criminal justice system is rooted in racism and directly linked to the racist agenda of the white supremacist. Broussard, B. (2015).

Aditi Patel Representing race Blockson Project 12/11/17. For the Blockson Project I found really interesting book “The new Jim Crow : mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander. I had this book for my other class and when I was reading it, I found this book boring and I thought that the book is disturbing.

Race is one the most sensitive and controversial topics of our time. As kids, we were taught that racism has gotten better as times has passed. However, the author, Michelle Alexander, of The New Jim Crow proposes the argument that racism has not gotten better, but the form of racism that we known in textbooks is not the racism we experience today. Michelle Alexander has countless amounts of plausible arguments, but she has failed to be a credible author, since she doesn’t give enough citations or evidence for her argument to convince people who may not have prior agreement with her agreement.. Alexander’s biggest mistake when it came to being a credible author was starting off the book with a countless number of claims without any evidence in her Introduction.

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.

The amount of mass incarceration in the United States as reached an all time high over the years. Mass Incarceration is the incarceration of a person or race based off of them being different and can be identified as a trend among law enforcements. These tensions have reached a certain extent and has received the attention of American citizens and the nation’s government. The laws of the United States seems fair, however with the enforcement of these laws, specific groups are targeted and abused by them daily.

Her central thesis is that mass incarceration is “The New Jim Crow,” or the new system of control used by the government to uphold racial class in the U.S. This book will be helpful to my research because it directly discusses the topic of race and the criminal justice system. Amnesty International. (2003). United States of America: Death by discrimination

In chapter “Are Prisons Obsolete?” Angela Davis strictly points out factors in results of the elites methods to be in total control. African Americans are highly accounted for in incarceration as an addition to the prison industrial complex. Mental health conditions are then vulnerable in the prison community which helps the cycle. This Cycle as she describes, is a great catalyst towards business and global economics.

The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for several reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. This literature review will discuss the ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system and how mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism has become a problem.

Aspects of punishment, including problems with the criminal justice system are explored throughout this source. Analyzing the criminal justice system, she concludes that laws and acts unfairly punish specific individuals such as people of colour, women and the lower class. In terms of African Americans and Hispanics, Ezorsky claims that the system creates a new racial caste system in America, producing a racial hierarchy and ensuring restrictions of rights on people of colour. Conclusions are made that the system does target and label coloured people “criminal” as the new means of a justification to discriminate against them. Afterwards the author discusses women in prison, noting that incarceration negatively impacts families.