'The New Jim Crow' By Michelle Alexander

The issue of mass incarceration sparked conversation about racial disparities within the prison system. Following the abolishment of Jim Crow, legal racial segregation in the United States appeared dead. According to civil rights advocate, Michelle Alexander this is not the case; racial segregation appears dead, but mass incarceration perpetuates a racial caste system that preserves this outdated practice. In Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow, she points to the cause, enforcement, and victims of this system, but her arguments lack the depth to stand against counterarguments.

In this article Nagel discusses an era of “the new Jim Crow” where racism ad sexism is appernt in the United States jail system. Nagel uses statistics to show how the prison population is growing to be black women and more gilrs than there are men. Nagel disccuses ways inpoliticans look at racial discrepancy ehrn sentencing. Her end argument is that it is time to transform our jail and justice system so that a black and female life can be considered a human life in the United States. This academic journal article will help support my argument that most of the politicians use the fact that these immigrants or people of color are dangerous and need to be kept off the streets as a political campaign to keep the white minority “safe”.

“More African Americans are under the control of the criminal justice system today – in prison or jail, on probation or parole – than were enslaved in 1850.” For this reason I decided to write my essay reflecting the documentary of Slavery By Another Name. Even though the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, it had an exception. Slavery was still legal as a form of punishment for a crime. With the abolishment of slavery many jobs were left unfilled.

Janet Fay Collins was the Metropolitan Opera's first African-American Prima Ballerina who broke the color barrier, paving the way for African-American dancers to come after her. Janet was born on March 2nd, 1917 in New Orleans, Louisiana. At the age of four years old she moved with her family to Los Angeles, California. There, she was enrolled into a Catholic Community Center for dance training. Her family did not have money to pay for Janet’s training.

Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow examines America’s latest racial system. The newest racial system to Alexander is mass incarceration. In the third chapter, entitled The Color of Justice, the main focus is the criminal justice system and the War on Drugs.

Andrew Young was born into a middle class family in New Orleans, and from a young age he knew what he believed in and was always very passionate about it. He was a very important civil rights leader, and still is today. Throughout his life he has made some amazing accomplishments, gotten incredible awards, and has made major changes in the civil rights movement. Andrew Jackson Young Jr. was born on March 12th, 1932. He was born into a middle class family in New Orleans, Louisiana during the Great Depression.

Prior to reading Elizabeth Keckley’s Behind the Scenes; or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House, I anticipated I would be reading about a woman in slavery with an unhappy past. I did not expect her story to end in a positive way. My expectations were to read of a woman bound in slavery that wrote memoirs of her saddened life and that life would continue until the day she died. I expected her to leave the home of a master and possibly become a maid or cook in the White House. I did not envision her becoming as successful as she did, her story far exceeded my expectations.

In history, every social movement had its prominent leader. The African American civil rights movement had Martin Luther King Jr., and the women 's suffrage movement had Susan B. Anthony. As for the LGBTQIA community, the obvious leader would be the man who spearheaded the gay rights movement other than the Stonewall Riot. Milk reached the greatest milestone for the movement by becoming the first openly gay man to hold public office. Elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, Dan White assassinated Milk and Mayor George Moscone not even a year after Milk won the election.

Most people tend to turn a blind eye to fact because they believe stereotype is a quick and easy way to distinguish between ethnicities. According to Alexander, “racial caste systems do not require racial hostility or overt bigotry to thrive” (14). Even though the overt racial hostility of the Jim Crow era no longer really exists, the indifference, apathy, and denial of the American people regarding the treatment of the black members of their country are absolutely sufficient to prop up the system of marginalization. People find it easy to believe in stereotypes rather than take the time to investigate their validity, and they content themselves by thinking that people are in jail because they did something legitimately wrong. They ignore that statistics that trouble them and continue on in a nonchalant approach, and of course it is a very dangerous fashion.

Race is one the most sensitive and controversial topics of our time. As kids, we were taught that racism has gotten better as times has passed. However, the author, Michelle Alexander, of The New Jim Crow proposes the argument that racism has not gotten better, but the form of racism that we known in textbooks is not the racism we experience today. Michelle Alexander has countless amounts of plausible arguments, but she has failed to be a credible author, since she doesn’t give enough citations or evidence for her argument to convince people who may not have prior agreement with her agreement.. Alexander’s biggest mistake when it came to being a credible author was starting off the book with a countless number of claims without any evidence in her Introduction.

When you look at me what do you see? To society, I’m a black female who fits the stereotypical “wanna-be” black female wanting to have white hair textures. They watch carefully as I walk past them; afraid of my “black girl capabilities” solely based off of stereotypes that have been carelessly passed down from generation to generation. They think, “She’s probably unhappy with her dark complexion”. They wonder, “Why does she look so angry, it’s probably just another angry black woman.”

“The New Jim Crow offers a devastating account of a legal system doing its job perfectly well. We have simply replaced one caste system with another one.” — Forbes Magazine “The New Jim Crow” sheds light on the racial amplitude within the war on drugs. It contends that federal drug policies unfairly target minorities, i.e. people of color. Due to this discrimination, people of color, black men particularly, are kept in a never ending cycle of living in poverty or behind bars.