Michelle Alexander

Once in a great while a book comes along that changes the way we see the world and helps to fuel a nationwide social movement. The New Jim Crow is such a book. Praised by Harvard Law professor Lani Guinier as "brave and bold," this book directly challenges the notion that the election of Barack Obama signals a new era of colorblindness. With dazzling candor, legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." By targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control—relegating millions to a permanent second-class status—even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness. In the words of Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, this book is a "call to action." Called "stunning" by Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David Levering Lewis, "invaluable" by the Daily Kos, "explosive" by Kirkus, and "profoundly necessary" by the Miami Herald, this updated and revised paperback edition of The New Jim Crow, now with a foreword by Cornel West, is a must-read for all people of conscience.

The New Jim Crow

Jeff Sexton

Fundamentally Flawed, But With Some Good Points And Multitudinous Evidence. Overall, Alexander's work has some good points - mostly when it concerns examining the United States' mass incarceration system as a whole. Its fundamental fatal flaw however its its central tenet- that this mass incarceration system is a system of *racial*, rather than class, control. But at least Alexander documents her case well, even when only citing evidence from a particular strain of thought that happens to agree with her own. Worth reading - highly recommended even - for the examination of the mass incarceration system and its effects as a whole , but severely hampered in its attempts to portray the system as "just another way to keep the black man down". In that central tenet, it does its greatest disservice to showing the full monstrosity that is the US mass incarceration system.

This book is a very compelling, though-provoking, and needed critique of the U.S. criminal justice system and mass incarceration. I appreciate how Michelle breaks the chapters up into different ways the system of mass incarceration is present in our laws, policies, political and media rhetoric, and functioning as a racial caste system. While concrete solutions aren't offered in the text, Michelle sets the stage for much needed and long awaited discussion on how to begin consciously addressing our history of creating and finding justifications to maintain racial caste systems in the U.S. The inclusion of how Civil Right Advocates have failed to continue large-scale movements to eradicate mass incarceration was also an aspect of the continuation of mass incarceration that I hadn't previously thought of. 

Jenna Thornton

The New York Times bestseller and 'Bible of a social movement' (San Francisco Chronicle) Once in a great while a book comes along that radically changes our understanding of a crucial political issue and helps to fuel a social movement. The New Jim Crow is such a book. Lawyer and activist Michelle Alexander offers a stunning account of the rebirth of a caste-like system in the United States, one that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class status, denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights movement. Challenging the notion that the election of Barack Obama signalled a new era of colourblindness in the United States, The New Jim Crow reveals how racial discrimination was not ended but merely redesigned. By targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of colour, the American criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control, relegating millions to a permanent second-class status even as it formally adheres to the principle of colourblindness. A searing call to action for everyone concerned with social justice, The New Jim Crow is one of the most important books about race in the 21st century.

Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colourblindness

Wow. Should be required reading for every American.

A tenth-anniversary edition of the iconic bestseller--"one of the most influential books of the past 20 years," according to the Chronicle of Higher Education--with a new preface by the author Seldom does a book have the impact of Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow. Since it was first published in 2010, it has been cited in judicial decisions and has been adopted in campus-wide and community-wide reads; it helped inspire the creation of the Marshall Project and the new $100 million Art for Justice Fund; it has been the winner of numerous prizes, including the prestigious NAACP Image Award; and it has spent nearly 250 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Most important of all, it has spawned a whole generation of criminal justice reform activists and organizations motivated by Michelle Alexander's unforgettable argument that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." As the Birmingham News proclaimed, it is "undoubtedly the most important book published in this century about the U.S." Now, ten years after it was first published, The New Press is proud to issue a tenth-anniversary edition with a new preface by Michelle Alexander that discusses the impact the book has had and the state of the criminal justice reform movement today.

Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

incredible. i encourage especially non-black individuals to read this!

Laura Kehoe

This is not a fun book by any means. Nor was it an easy read. Not because the writing was too complex or disjointed. But because the topics discussed are not pleasant ones. The issue of mass incarceration and its affect on black people is one of those uncomfortable truths that many people simply don’t want to think about. But that’s why this topic is so important to discuss. This book does an excellent job explaining some of the root causes of our current issues, as well as suggesting some possible ways to move forward toward a better future.

Angbeen Abbas

i quite liked this book! very interesting and it was good reading something that's less theory-ish and a bit more rooted in the sort of concrete, legal aspect of how incarceration works. was really easy to read and is def one of the most accessible books about this topic i've read

Francis Buggey

The book was absolutely amazing. It's not bedside reading and you shouldn't start reading it thinking you already know what it's gonna be about. Michelle Alexander brings up discussion on things that we (as privileged Americans) don't realize is happening under our noses.

Melissa Schwartz

I learned so much from this, some concepts familiar and others total surprises. It is extensive, but important. Below are some quotes from the book that I found really impactful:

“Saying mass incarceration is an abysmal failure makes sense, though, only if one assumes that the criminal justice system is designed to prevent and control crime. But if mass incarceration is understood as a system of social control—specifically, racial control—then the system is a fantastic success.”

“Most people imagine that the explosion in the U.S. prison population during the past twenty-five years reflects changes in crime rates. Few would guess that our prison population leaped from approximately 350,000 to 2.3 million in such a short period of time due to changes in laws and policies, not changes in crime rates. Yet it has been changes in our laws—particularly the dramatic increases in the length of prison sentences—that has been responsible for the growth of our prison system, not increases in crime. One study suggests that the entire increase in the prison population from 1980 to 2001 can be explained by sentencing policy changes.”

“Colorblindness, though widely touted as the solution, is actually the problem.”

“Imprisonment, they say, now creates far more crime than it prevents, by ripping apart fragile social networks, destroying families, and creating a permanent class of unemployables.”

Elizabeth Morris

"Those of us who hope to be their allies should not be surprised, if and when this day comes, that when those who have been locked up and locked out finally have the chance to speak and truly be heard, what we hear is rage. The rage may frighten us; it may remind us of riots, uprising s, and buildings aflame. We may be tempted to control it, or douse it with buckets of doubt, dismay, and disbelief. But we should do no such thing. Instead, when a young man who was born in the ghetto and who knows little of life beyond the walls of his prison cell and the invisible cage that has become his life, turns to us in bewilderment and rage , we should do nothing more than look him in the eye and tell him the truth." 


That day has come.

Shelby Doherty

Likes:
- Wow so much information in such a relatively compact book. I especially really appreciated the Preface and Foreward where the author better explains why she focuses in on the topic that she does and how things have changed (or stayed the same) in the 10 years since it was originally published.
- This should be mandatory reading. This is a topic that is discussed regularly but we rarely dive into it in a deep way

Dislikes:
- Not a fault of the book, but audiobook was probably not the best way to read this one. There is so much information packed in this book and I find the the nature of an audiobook makes it much harder to pause, reflect and think about the things that are written. In addition, I think that it is much harder to grasp all that is being said in an audiobook when compared to an ebook/physical book.
- Just a personal preference, but the chapters were super long and made it hard for me to find places to stop reading and pick up again later. Again this could be a result of the audiobook format.

Arden Kowalski

Great book. One argument is presented in way of a logical fallacy, but otherwise it's very well done. Should be required reading for most social science courses.

Melody Izard

Excellent information. Just gets a bit repetitive as the chapters progress.

Steven Ovadia

Fantastic examination of the criminal justice system with some very provocative recommendations at the end, including re-evaluating the role of affirmative action.

Fascinating and well-researched book.

Omar Fernandez

"Not an easy read/listen, as the claims are very strong. In essence, there are biases in our judicial system and incentives that lead to racial profiling and a large percentage of black men getting locked up in prisons for the same crimes that non-blacks aren't locked up. In essence, the system cracks down and is less forgiving for black men, even if whites or other non-blacks commit the crimes at similar rates. 

Most poignant, to me, is the severity of the punishment people receive for relatively common ""felonies"" such as drug possession and how is totally ridiculous relative to the gravity of the offense. The US leads in overly punishing blacks for crimes that most countries would just help with recovery and do a slap in the wrist, rather than years in prison and a felony record for life. 

That's the second thing that stands out to me, how in the US you can discriminate against someone so strongly, their whole lives, just because they were once arrested and found to have drugs. Their felony follows them for the rest of their lives and is ridiculous the extent to which it limits them forever. "

Ruby Huber

Excellent breakdown of how the US has found a way to ~legally~ remove hundreds of thousands (More??) of black men (and as many other racial minorities as they can) from active participation in society, and also to blame them for it, and also to literally charge them (money) for it. I will say that had I read this five years ago when I bought it I wouldn't have processed it as well as I was able to this year, but I do regret how easily I avoided reading it because I knew it would be "heavy" and "a downer" and that I could always just "get to it later." No more of that from me!

Great book, very detailed and well written. Alexander makes some really good points and highlights some of the issues on all sides. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to learn more about how broken our system is, and where we need to go to try to improve things.

I definitely recommend getting the latest version you can find. Alexander does an updated preface that talks about some of the more recent events.

Ketevan Marr

I didn’t learn any new big concepts, but that is because the ideas of this classic work has seeped into the discourse of mass incarceration. 

Some things I did appreciate learning about: the history around regression of gains during the Reconstruction period and the legal decisions of the Supreme Court that make it impossible to sue police and prosecutor offices for racial discrimination. These two topics I knew little about and is very good info to have.

Jeni Enjaian

I really wanted to like this book but it let me down big time. Alexander made what I believe to be a valid observation. However, she did not support it with valid, neutral facts and observations. Her language throughout the book (I almost wrote novel because that's how it read) conveyed that her opinion was the only one that was right. If any evidence might contradict her thesis, she discounted it. She did not validate any counterclaim. I teach my students when writing argument essays to make sure to validate the counterclaim so that they can dispute that counterclaim which makes their argument stronger. Unfortunately, her lack of this validation severely weakens her argument, an argument which I actually agree with her on.

I am sorry that I had to come to this conclusion.

Luke Jones

Christine Liu

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander is the book I wish I'd been assigned in my US history classes in school. Reading it made me understand for the first time exactly why our criminal justice system is the mess it is today, and it is easily one of the most important books I've ever read.

It's a well known fact that the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world, far surpassing that of countries like Russia and China which we often consider to have particularly draconian penal policies. But what I was surprised to realize that I never really considered before was that our current rates of incarceration would have been unimaginable before the 1980's. It was the War on Drugs ushered in by the Nixon administration that directly led to our current reality of overfilled prisons, despite the fact that drug use was actually decreasing at the time.

What Alexander lays out coherently and methodically is that the War on Drugs and the subsequent age of mass incarceration, particularly the incarceration of black men who are arrested and imprisoned at absurdly disproportionate rates when white men are actually far more likely to commit crimes, have created a new racial caste system in which people with criminal records can be legally excluded from their rights to voting, public housing, and federal aid, effectively relegating them to a new underclass.

Rachel

This is one of the most important books I have ever read. Basically Michelle Alexander shows how The War on Drugs and mass incarceration is the new racial caste. She explains how slavery began, how slavery ended, the new racist laws during reconstruction, the fall of the laws, the rise of Jim Crow, the fall of Jim Crow and then finally the rise of using the prison system to continue to target black communities and treat them like 2nd class citizens. It might sound crazy at first, Michelle couldn’t believe it at first either, but she spells it out point by point. My mind was blown. The thing is you probably already know and heard a lot of the statistics used, but seeing them all together and how they add up is shocking. The New Jim Crow is informative of the history that cause the mass incarceration of black, the policies made under both political parties that targeted blacks by instead using the world criminals to avoid blatant racism in the public. It explains how the courts are able to continue this caste, by protecting itself with rulings that prevent people to even bring up it is racially bias. The book also explains what it truly means to be a felon, how it is legal for our country to discriminate against felons, and what it is doing to the black communities.

 I highly recommend reading The New Jim Crow especially with the current events going on. This needs to be talked about and brought to light. It makes me upset that our country can ignore this problem.

The New Jim Crow

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