Role Of Mass Incarceration In The Age Of Colorblindness By Michelle Alexander

The New Jim crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness by Michelle Alexander breaks down the role that Mass incarceration has played in keeping legal racial discrimination, which we once called Jim Crow laws alive. Throughout the book Michelle Alexander explains the history behind Jim Crow laws and the American criminal justice system as they relate to each other. Alexander uses detailed history and hard facts to support her thesis that the Mass incarceration of African Americans is the governments way of reforming Jim Crow laws to fit todays time. The reason why this topic of Mass incarceration of African Americans is such an important topic to address is to preserve the future of the black community and to change the role that the criminal justice system plays in creating racial hierarchy. Alexander uses history and Data from National reports to analyze and supports her theory. What propaganda and the incarceration rates of African American's would lead you to believe is that African Americans are more likely to abuse and sell drugs than another race and the reason why the incarceration rate for African Americans is so high is because our criminal justice system is serious about the war on drugs and doing its job by keeping drug abusers and drug dealers off the streets. The Human Rights Watch report shows that 80 to 90 percent of all drug offenders sent to prison are African American in 2000, this number was collected by tracking the number of inmates that were admitted on drug charges. However, history shows that this is incorrect, the incarceration of African Americans began years before the pursuit on ending the "War on Drugs" which began in 1982. The data from national reports shows that African Americans are no more likely than any other ethnicity to abuser or sell drugs. During a study at a high school in 2000, in the National Institute on Drug Abuse, it was revealed that white students used crack cocaine at eight times the rate of African American students and that both white and black students use marijuana at similar rates. Another study conducted by analyzing drug-related emergency …show more content…
During the Jim Crow era African Americans could legally be discriminated against because of their color. The color of your skin could be the reason why someone could not get into certain schools, get a certain job, walk into a certain area and their rights were nearly nonexistent, today when someone has committed a felony society is now able to legally discriminate against them. People who have been convicted of felonies may legally be discriminated against and because of their criminal record they may not get into certain schools, get a certain job, and again their rights were nearly nonexistent, like the right to vote, the right to public benefits or the right to serve as a juror. These findings are so important because this proves Alexander's thesis that Jim Crow laws are not extent it has only been redesigned, African American's are being targeted at an alarming rate and because of the mass incarceration rate there a lot of people in the African American community who have been stripped of their American rights and experiencing the same discrimination that their ancestors had to face during the Jim Crow era because of their criminal