The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration

Michelle Alexander wrote a book called The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Ages of Colorblindness. In this book she argues that the American system of mass incarceration is the New Jim Crow. To get started we need to understand what the original Jim Crow was. The original Jim Crow refers to a series of racist laws that discriminate against African Americans. Even though these laws were from 1876 and 1965 when slavery was the norm, this book gives us an idea of how discrimination is still around today. The original Jim Crow system kept white people superior to black people. Alexander argues that even though the old Jim Crow is dead, it does not mean the end of racial caste. (p. 21) Slavery was race based and during slavery blacks had …show more content…
Since the war on drugs began police use anything they can to stop a vehicle. Traffic stops are motivated by a desire to hunt for drugs, not to enforce traffic laws. (p. 67) Unfortunately only the guilty people of color are heard from, not the innocent people of color. This is because they fear harassment or retaliation. Once arrested these people will never gain freedom from the system. (p. 89) The status as a felon limits the ability to provide for the family and this forces them to break the law again. These people are “barred from public housing by law, discriminated against by private landlords, ineligible for food stamps, forced to check the box indicating a felony conviction on employment applications for nearly every job, and denied licenses for a wide range of professions, people whose only crime is drug addiction or possession of a small amount of drugs for recreational use find themselves locked out of mainstream society and economy permanently.” (p. 94) This is just like the slaves were back in their …show more content…
(p. 98) This means that all these people are cut off from any assistance that they may need. This means that these people are now all being treated like slaves. That is why Alexander calls this The New Jim Crow. The similarities between the original Jim Crow and the new Jim Crow are exclusion from jury duty and legalized discrimination. It is sad that rather knowingly or unknowingly history has repeated itself. To see what today’s criminal justice system is doing to these people who should be free is chilling and the impact that it will have on generations to come is alarming. To think that a lot of people believe they had moved forward from the civil rights movement to read such an inspiring book to find out that Jim Crow laws still exist and you cannot see them is