The New Jim Crow Justice System

13th is a 2016 documentary film that discusses discrimination, mass incarceration, and law enforcement in the context of African-Americans in the United States. Its title emanates from the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution which states that slavery and any form of forced service is prohibited except in the situation of being convicted for a crime. Speakers are those that condemn the criminal justice system, and are pushing for equality among races. 13th touches on multiple contemporary problems which stem from America’s history, and aims to educate audiences on the effects and impacts these have caused to the black community.

According to Ava DuVernay who explored the history of racial inequality throughout the engaging documentary, “13th”, our country continues on to having challenges when it comes to the matter of race, assumption of crime, and discrimination between white men and black men. A large number of african americans have been denied

Ana DuVernay’s documentary, “13th” explores and brings light to how the 13th amendment makes it unconstitutional to be held a slave with the exception of being labeled as a criminal. The documentary explains that due to the language used in the 13th amendment, the rights that black people fought to have during the Civil War can be stripped away from them once labeled a criminal. The film states that 1 in every 17 white males are incarcerated during their lifetime, while 1 in every 3 black males are incarcerated during their lifetime. Statistics like these act as evidence for the racial injustice and inequity that is still found in our police and prison system today. Once labeled a criminal, your rights to vote, get a job, take out loans, etc.

In light of my freshman year summer reading assignment of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander, I found intergroup theory to be an intriguing solution to Alexander’s assertion. Intergroup theory proposes that both organization groups and identity groups affect one’s intergroup relations and thereby shape one’s cognitive formations (Ott, Parks, Simpson, 2008). Alexander exchanges her views on the correlation between race related issues specific to African American males and mass incarceration in the United States. Further, Alexander goes on to provide statistics to show how African American males are predisposed to mass incarceration. I feel the solutions to the problems Alexander raise in her

The original Jim Crow Laws were a bunch of state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Jim Crow Laws was more than just a series of anti-black laws. It was a way of life. The Jim Crow System was under girded by the following beliefs or rationalizations that whites were superior to blacks in all the important ways such as intelligence, civilized behavior and morality. I can understand why she believes that mass incarceration is the New Jim Crow because all felonies once they get out are completely discriminated by society.

While I was viewing these articles, I really started to get angry inside. I understood all this exists, but reading it over and over again brings me back to remember how serious this situation is. Many of these topics was covered in the book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, but these articles are bringing up topics that I never even considered. Such as, in the Silverstein’s article it said “Discrimination has been shown to increase the risk of stress, depression, the common cold, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, and mortality. ”(Silverstein)

The New Jim Crow give me a new perspective to look at the racism in the United States. Before reading it, I knew that black people are being mistreated in the United States, but I don’t know that government uses its power to control that black people’s life. I thought the election of President Obama means the end of racism in the United States, and apparently I am wrong. By reading this book, I realized the segregation changed its form to appear in today’s society and this new form of segregation turn most people into colorblindness. We don’t see the segregation is happened in United States because we don’t experience what black people have experienced.

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.

Just four years after the first juvenile court was established, W.E.B. DuBois, in 1903, wrote that the problem of the 20th century was the color line (DuBois, 2005). More than a century later, in 2012, Michelle Alexander wrote in her book “The New Jim Crow” that she had somewhat reluctantly come to the conclusion that a racial caste system still exists in the United States and is responsible for the disproportionate number of minorities in the criminal justice system (Alexander, 2012). Somewhat more than halfway through the 19th century, Jefferson Davis made a statement that clearly shows the problem in a stark manner. In his book tracing racist ideas in America, Ibram X. Kendi recalls what Jefferson Davis, who would go on to become the president

In high school, I never paid much attention to history class. Though I remember learning about two distinctive terms, only because I thought they sounded funny: de jure and de facto segregation. De jure segregation, is segregation by law where as de facto segregation, is segregation that is done subtly by society through habit. Though de jure segregation is hard to come across now, de facto segregation is emanate. Simply put, discrimination still exists in disguise.

What comes next is a very much needed, but undoubtedly a grim chapter in our nation's brief history, the atrocious Civil war known as "a new birth of freedom" said by no one other than Abraham Lincoln himself. With the southern states succeeding from the northern states, this quite literally cut the country right in half. With the north or the Union is against slavery and the south or the Confederacy is pro-slavery, thus providing even more encouragement among free blacks in the north to fight against the tyrannical south. It is noted that when it was all said and done African-Americans accounted for around ten percent of the union army. This is due to the promises of being considered equals among their fellow citizens.

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.

This history of violent racism has led to a climate of mistrust between Black Americans and law enforcement, which has not been adequately addressed and continues to inflame racial tensions across the nation. In conclusion, it is impossible to overstate the effect of Jim Crow laws on the American approach toward race. These discriminatory policies created a culture of segregation, racism, and hate, institutionalizing prejudice and sparking conflict throughout American society. It has taken decades of activism and struggle to bring America back on track with racial equality, and the impact of this struggle is still profoundly felt today. Though racism persists in some forms of modern society, we should continue to fight for equal opportunities and justice for all, as the foundations of these battles were laid by the heroes who fought against the Jim Crow

5th Hour Cause and Effect Essay Jim Crow laws The Jim Crow laws were unfair and unjust to all African-Americans by making them unequal. The Jim Crow laws are laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States. It used the term separate but equal, even though conditions for African Americans were always worst than their white counterparts. They could not eat at the same restaurant as white people, they could not used the same restrooms, and they couldn't even use the same drinking fountain.

The use of narcotics like cocaine, claimed many lives and earned widespread coverage by media and news. Following this Nancy Reagan began the “War on Drugs”, a campaign to combat pre-existing drug usage and prevent future