Aditi Patel
Representing race
Blockson Project
12/11/17.
For the Blockson Project I found really interesting book “The new Jim Crow : mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander. I had this book for my other class and when I was reading it, I found this book boring and I thought that the book is disturbing. But after taking this class as representing race, I know the main concepts and themes behind the book and how they faced all things which are not appropriate for any kind of race or color. The videos we saw in class are full of violence and full of discriminative words that I can’t even imagine. I found that the purpose of the book isn't to give itemized techniques to "illuminate" this emergency, yet the narrator
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Those in jail and those discharged are a piece of a framework that disappoints them; makes it extraordinarily hard to look for some kind of employment, lodging, or other open help; and presents to them a disgrace and shame that can be about impossible. As the medication war was racially roused, the correlation with the chronicled Jim Crow is fitting and evident. It is the new racial standing framework, dug in yet imperceptible. As we saw plenty of videos with violence on black people in class that clearly gives you goose bumps about problems of Law Enforcement and Government in America for black community. The narrator also mentioned that kind of law enforcement and government problems in this book and she said that preservationist government officials initiated "extreme on wrongdoing" and "peace" strategies in the late-twentieth century to stir poor whites' help and minimize ethnic minorities. The criminal equity framework isn't visually challenged or
The book can be hurtful towards people of color and can make them feel as if they're outta place and not wanted.
I was confused why she was focused on free Kindergarten, but this text was about educational injustices for African American children. This text served as a reminder that I take for granted opportunities that once were not granted to everyone. I think White America focuses in on certain aspects of the African American oppression and then just blocks out the rest of characteristics. It is like we are conditioned to think that once African Americans were no longer enslaved that they were equal to everyone else, but this text was a grim reminder that was not the
The main central theme or message of the book is to never stay silent while witnessing discrimination. Society could be influenced in the sense that we do not always speak up when witnessing injustice or oppression, and are sometimes oblivious to it. Also by recognizing that many people are racist, whether they mean it or not. Sometimes when we are close to someone we overlook their flaws, so if we start to recognize that it can help us become better people.
I attended a high school that is predominately of color, however, I don't remember a time when a teacher taught the students about systemic racism. So, I decided to take the matter into my own hands – I pressured my history teacher to talk about the issues that currently affect people of color. I recommended a book called "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander to be taught the last few weeks of school. Surprisingly, the teacher agreed to add the book to the curriculum. We talked about systemic racism, the school-to-prison pipeline, and the prison industrial complex.
However, a number of African Americans, who were convicted of a felony, are disproportionately high nowadays. Michelle Alexander considers that It has led to the creation of “a new racial undercaste” (2010). Actually, in our time, discrimination affects every aspect of political, economic, and social life of the people who was charged with a serious criminal offence. In this regard, she mentions the law “banning drug felons from public housing …and denying them basic public benefits for life” (2010). We live in a “colorblind society” that pretends the racial disparity and discrimination do not exist.
These shows, such as 2 Broke Girls, Cops, Friends etc. each portrays racism, and classism, we just don’t notice it. The shows Cops have focused its show in lower class areas, never upper class, Friends and other sitcoms always throw in those ‘stereotypical’ jokes that everyone seems to find so funny. These shows prove that we (society) still do not treat everyone equally, and that our justice system continues to use racial profiling and classism as a way of social control. Not only does the book focus on the colonization of blacks, but also of Hispanics and how they are affected.
In the opening of the introduction of The New Jim Crow the author clearly outlines the power of one race to another for example how the great-great grandfather of Jarvis’s Cotton was denied to vote for being a slave (Alexander 2010). The great grandfather of Jarvis’s beaten to death by the Klan for attempting to vote (Alexander 2010) and Jarvis himself could not vote because he was labeled as a felon. Most offenders today that get out from prison face discrimination in voting, employment, housing and receiving public assistance linking toward the Jim Crow era. Most incarcerated individuals are still racially segregated which racial bias still exist in our criminal justice system today not only in the Southern states. Some people still believe
In the South, the blacks had not exactly won their freedom. Sure the Constitution was amended, but this didn 't mean they would get that kind of freedom. I can totally relate to the Blacks back in the day, how hard they had to go through because of some very evil people who think they just can control anything they want. Me as a human being and a nice person would never use someone against their will because I have a little of what they call power. The Blacks were force to work for farm owners for almost something that didn’t even exist, so I guess you can say they worked for free.
The book was very informative of life when racism was more apparent. I think that books like this show that standing up to racism is an option. It shows that even children of a younger age were involved in the situation.
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Alexander, M. (2012). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: The New Press. Michelle Alexander in her book, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" argues that law enforcement officials routinely racially profile minorities to deny them socially, politically, and economically as was accustomed in the Jim Crow era.
What comes next is a very much needed, but undoubtedly a grim chapter in our nation's brief history, the atrocious Civil war known as "a new birth of freedom" said by no one other than Abraham Lincoln himself. With the southern states succeeding from the northern states, this quite literally cut the country right in half. With the north or the Union is against slavery and the south or the Confederacy is pro-slavery, thus providing even more encouragement among free blacks in the north to fight against the tyrannical south. It is noted that when it was all said and done African-Americans accounted for around ten percent of the union army. This is due to the promises of being considered equals among their fellow citizens.
Michelle Alexander, similarly, points out the same truth that African American men are targeted substantially by the criminal justice system due to the long history leading to racial bias and mass incarceration within her text “The New Jim Crow”. Both Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Michelle Alexander’s text exhibit the brutality and social injustice that the African American community experiences, which ultimately expedites the mass incarceration of African American men, reflecting the current flawed prison system in the U.S. The American prison system is flawed in numerous ways as both King and Alexander points out. A significant flaw that was identified is the injustice of specifically targeting African American men for crimes due to the racial stereotypes formed as a result of racial formation. Racial formation is the accumulation of racial identities and categories that are formed, reconstructed, and abrogated throughout history.
Through reading this novel it helped me to understand the pain of discrimination and since the story was told in first person, I could feel the emotions the main character was feeling. I think discrimination because of what a person’s blood or skin is like is truly an awful thing to do and this novel helped me stand by this argument more
The one thing I would have done more differently in this book is getting more in detail as to how this is hurting our nation. It is not obvious that we still have a problem with race issues and hate crimes. There has been multiple cases where a white police officer commits murder against a young black or white woman, but walk away free with their hands clean. Of course not all of these cases tie into with racial differences, but now with videos being posted everywhere, it is obvious to see when an officer is in danger and when he makes a cruel act. Another example of crimes committed by hate is when people
Coker gives great evidence that supports racial injustice in the criminal justice system. She discusses on the Supreme Court’s rulings and accusations of racial preference in the system. This article is helpful because it supports my thesis on race playing a role on the system of criminal justice. Hurwitz, J., & Peffley, M. (1997). Public perceptions of race and crime: The role of racial stereotypes.