The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

Hardcover, 352 pages

English language

Published Dec. 1, 2010 by New Press.

ISBN:
978-1-59558-103-7
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
320803432

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5 stars (51 reviews)

As the United States celebrates the nation's "triumph over race" with the election of Barack Obama, the majority of young black men in major American cities are locked behind bars or have been labeled felons for life. Although Jim Crow laws have been wiped off the books, an astounding percentage of the African American community remains trapped in a subordinate status -- much like their grandparents before them.

In this incisive critique, former litigator-turned-legal-scholar Michelle Alexander provocatively argues that we have not ended racial caste in America: we have simply redesigned it. Alexander shows that, by targeting black men and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control, even as it formally adheres to the principle of color blindness. The New Jim Crow challenges the civil rights community -- and all of us -- to place mass incarceration at the forefront …

22 editions

Lawyers know how to present an argument

5 stars

A long and detailed account of racist systems of control in America, with a strong focus on the current one, mass incarceration. Michelle makes a solid and even-handed case for calling mass incarceration the new Jim Crow, all while acknowledging and explaining the important differences. Read the tenth anniversary edition, which comments on the events since the book's first publication, it's well worth it.

2022 #FReadom read 20/20

5 stars

At the beginning of 2022, I set a goal to read at least 20 books this year that had been banned or threatened in Texas libraries or schools. My 20th book in that #FReadom journey was the 10th Anniversary edition of The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. newjimcrow.com/

After finishing Alexander's profound work, I went back and reread her updated preface to the new edition, in which she captures the urgency of how the business of mass incarceration has evolved through privatized "e-carceration" and immigration detention.

Then I came across this deep dive by @aaronlmorrison published last month by AP, with personal stories of the impact of the drug war & mass incarceration. But I needed the context of Alexander's book to truly understand the massive scale of the whole story. apnews.com/article/war-on-drugs-75e61c224de3a394235df80de7d70b70

Review of 'New Jim Crow' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

“The nature of the criminal justice system has changed. It is no longer primarily concerned with the prevention and punishment of crime, but rather with the management and control of the dispossessed.”

This was a tough book to read, but I am glad that I finally got a chance to finish this as this was a book club pick for the month of June. It took me about three weeks to read it because the subject material is so heavy—I spaced it out with some light and ‘fun’ reads to get a breather in. Michelle Alexander has crafted an informative and engaging work of non-fiction that looks at the intersection of two specific things: race, specifically being black in the criminal justice system, and the impact from the War on Drugs.It is difficult to broach the history of racism in the US, considering just how vast a subject it is, …

Review of 'The New Jim Crow' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Since this book first came out a decade ago, it's important to read the preface and the forward for the updates.

The author's thesis is that "The system of mass incarceration created a legal framework by which the rights and benefits of citizenship are routinely stripped away from millions of U.S. citizens labeled "criminals" and "felons" until they mirror...those of non-citizen immigrants within the United States."

It seems obvious to me that that is exactly what has happened, though I'm not sure that I'm convinced that there was a master plan for this. The fact is, it happened, it's happening, and it will take major change to put an end to this horrible crisis.

Alexander gives us a history lesson, a tour of the outrageously discriminatory laws of the past, and argues that each time one of these was overturned, powerful whites found a new way of discriminating against African …

Review of 'The New Jim Crow' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

This book was difficult to read. Repetitive and verging on strident. And sometimes it was hard to tell whether she was stating facts or opinions. One of us did some research and found some rebuttals to the book that claimed that her statistics were off - that nearly everyone in prison was convicted of crimes of violence. None of which detracts from the fact (opinion?) that the war on drugs has been a colossal failure, or excuses the fact that enforcement is focused so strongly on minorities, and largely ignoring drug use by whites.

Review of 'The New Jim Crow' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This book is extraordinary. I'd been hearing that I should read it for several years, and had it on my To Read list, but kept shying away. I imagined it would be a dry, academic slog. It is not. While thoroughly researched and meticulously footnoted (notes are at the back), the prose is concise, jargon-free, and dynamic.

I knew the bits and pieces -- the "3 strikes, you're out" laws, the War on Crime, the dearth of public defenders -- but I didn't understand how it all comes together to produce today's American mass incarceration. I learned so much that I'd never realized. It ties together case law (I am NOT happy with the Supreme Court), behavior by prosecutors, plea bargains, the police (and how politicians have funneled funding to the police), and cynical laws passed by our legislators, all into a net that primarily traps African Americans.

We are …

Review of 'The New Jim Crow' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Do you watch Law and Order? Take a break for a few episodes and read this book instead.

This book discusses the effects of the war on drugs, rising incarceration rates, affirmative action, color-blindness, and a number of other issues.

Drugs, jail, judges, justice, and much more.

I learned quite a few eye-opening facts while reading. Here's a couple: police officers can discriminate based on race so long as it is not the only determining factor of their actions (e.g. "I arrested him because he was black and wearing a hooded sweatshirt") and judges have retired due to their unwillingness to continue obeying mandatory minimum sentence laws.

I do wish the data behind this discussion was a little more prevalent in this book. Statistics were definitely discussed multiple times, but they were mostly mentioned in passing and infrequently reiterated.

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Subjects

  • Criminal justice, Administration of -- United States
  • African American prisoners -- United States
  • Race discrimination -- United States
  • United States -- Race relations

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