Racial Discrimination In The New Jim Crow By Michelle Alexander

“Yes We Can” were the words of a 47-year old African American senator from Illinois who would become the first Black President of the United States. I remember watching CNN as the grand projection came in and seeing crowds of people in tears of joy. Holding hands and chanting in excitement, it seemed as though a big weight had been lifted off the nation’s shoulders. Black, white and brown appeared to have become one for a night. The important thing to know is that we weren’t always separate. In fact, the early colonial period brought poor black people and poor white people together on the basis of economic standing. It was the planter’s elite that drove a wedge between the two after Bacon’s Rebellion. By convincing the poor whites that they …show more content…
We would like to believe that we live in the time where race is not an issue and people are equal in everyone’s eyes. While blatant racial slurs are looked down upon by modern society, Alexander points out that racial discrimination has come in a new form: mass incarceration. According to the NAACP, African Americans are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of whites. While there have been recent protests of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, racial discrimination is not a new issue. In her book, Michelle Alexander provides an analysis of how our nation’s discriminatory history has influenced the stagnant social standing of African Americans today. The following are concepts discussed in Second Thoughts by Ruane and Cerulo that are coherent with points made by Alexander in The New Jim …show more content…
One way to analyze how the current racial benefits a group is to look at the situation through a conflict-theorist perspective. A conflict theorist is a sociologist “who analyzes social organization and social interactions by attending to the differential resources controlled by different sectors of a society.”(Ruane Cerulo 41) Conflict theory explains that a competition for resources establishes a distribution of power and wealth in society. Those were given power to start with (i.e white Americans) want to continue to stay in power. Many will also use their power to make sure the racial situation stays this way. Although it is unfair, it maintains the social order that we have been accustomed to. One way to continue this social order has been through drug enforcement. In Chapter 3 of The New Jim Crow, Alexander focuses on how the War on Drugs has enabled the mass incarceration of African Americans. While the rates of drug use are remarkably similar in both black and white populations, the rates of which African Americans were searched and seized were disproportionate. It is in the power of the police as to who will be questioned for the possession of drugs. In most situations, a citizen will be prompted to stop in his/her car for a minor traffic violation when the real reason is for the suspicion of drugs. In Alexander’s book, it is