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The New Jim Crow Theme

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America, the land of the free, but is that true? The book The New Jim Crow raises many questions and forces its readers to reconsider the way we think about our judicial systems. Michelle Alexander brings up 6 main themes that we need to consider, the first one being The New Jim Crow. This is the main theme of the author’s work. She believes that our current American system of mass incarceration due to the rise in drug related arrested, is an attempt to neglect people of color, the same way that the Jim Crow laws had targeted African Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries. The second theme is Denial and Ignorance of the American people. The only way we can shed light on this issue is to educate the people into thinking differently about civil rights. Media plays a huge role in …show more content…

This sparked a height in incarceration rates, especially those of black men. Through the system, Alexander believes we have pushed people into second class status, and therefore our criminal justice system remains unfair. The fifth theme is due to the lying, manipulation, subterfuge, and obfuscation of the American people. Alexander (2012), believes that from day one we have been lied to by our government. The war on drugs pushed people into fear, and therefore manipulated law enforcement to go after people of color. Again, our media has promoted incorrect stereotypes, and the politicians lied to us through it all. All of this is the reason that The New Jim Crow exists. The last theme of The New Jim Crow is history. History is seeming to repeat itself, and Alexander (2012) explains in her book that what is going on today, is exactly what happened during the Jim Crow age. To break this pattern, we must ask the questions that no one wants to. We need stop this vicious cycle of mass incarceration before it leads into something much

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