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Jim Crow Laws Summary

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Although studies prove that all ethnicities use drugs at about the same rate, the drug laws are enforced overwhelmingly against people of color. Alexander posits that this is not an accident and, rather, the war on drugs is purposefully the latest incarnation of America’s racial caste system. The language had to change because discrimination again a person based on color is illegal; however, Alexander lays out a plethora of evidence to show that drug-war rhetoric is used to oppress people of color the exact same way as Jim Crow laws once were. Instead, of explicit discriminatory laws, Fourth Amendment rights were disintegrated in the name of drug interdiction; there was a rise in exploitation of asset-forfeiture laws; and police forces appear …show more content…

Not even countries known for locking up its citizens, like China, Iran, or Russia come close to the United States’ 700 people living behind bars for every 100,000 people (Kelley & Sterbenz, 2014). Unfortunately, the problem with mass incarceration is not limited to living behind bars. Alexander expertly guides the reader down the rabbit hole of the additional ramifications of being labeled a felon in American society: the complexity of laws that prohibits felons from public assistance, like housing or food stamps, legislation that take away felons’ voting rights, regulations that make it legal for employers to discriminate against felons, and statutes that control felons’ movements and their affiliations. The New Jim Crow further highlights a series of court precedents that make it impractical for defendants to claim the police, the prosecutors, or the justice system is undeniably racist as a defense. Arguably, being a person of color, who is labeled a felon, makes it legal for the rest of society to prevent you from participating in a free society

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