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. She first supports her claim by chronicling America 's history of institutionalized racism and systematic disenfranchisement of African Americans. Then, she discusses America 's War on Drugs that disproportionately targets minorities and finally as she examines the hardship faced by felons she compares and contrasts Jim Crow Laws to mass incarceration. Alexander surmises that mass incarceration is designed to maintain white supremacy and sustain a racial classification system. Alexander 's book is relevant to my research paper because she provides evidence that the criminal justice system is rooted in racism and directly linked to the racist agenda of the white supremacist. Broussard, B. (2015). Mass Incarceration: Transforming an Unconstitutional System. Guild Notes, 40(4), 12. Brad Broussard in his article, Mass …show more content…
He supports his claim by first analyzing the role politics played in mass incarceration, as well as how media portrayals incited reactions and misrepresented minorities, then he determines how public opinion affected policy, and finally, he addresses the degree to which punitiveness caused the rise and fall of support for mass incarceration. Enns ' book is helpful to my research paper because it examines the racial disparities in sentencing, as well as, discriminatory attitudes and perspectives that determine
This book discusses social issues such as Mass Incarceration within our society. Michelle Alexander is very qualified to discuss the controversial topics that are mentioned within the text. Alexander is a civil rights lawyer, a legal scholar and advocate. She has held many positions in higher
Michelle alexander states in her book that “1 in every 14 black men was behind bars in 2006, compared with 1 in 106 white men” (61). The idea of incarceration, in this situation, mass incarceration is
It is an existing theory that our society is constructed via racial dimensions, and that racial equality is a figment of the imagination. This very principle is highlighted in Michelle Alexander’s novel, “The New Jim Crow.” The specific dimensions covered within the text include the unjust aspects of the federal drug policy, and by connection that of mass incarceration as well. Alexander claims that racism is still very prominent in present day society and is direct and frank about the heavy influence of white supremacy. One of the main arguments pushed by Alexander in this book is that mass incarceration is “ a stunningly comprehensive and well-disguised system of racialized social control that functions in a manner strikingly similar
Over the last couple of years at Dominican University, I have taken numerous courses in sociology and criminal justice. I have learned a great amount about the criminal justice system. Michelle Alexander, who is a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, and legal scholar, speaks on the assault against on poor and vulnerable people in American society. In the book, The New Jim Crow, Alexander’s work takes on the systemic breakdown of black and poor communities overwhelmed by a huge quantity of unemployment, social disregard, and forceful police surveillance (Alexander, 2010). Alexander’s “subtle analysis shifts our attention from the racial symbol of America’s achievement to the actual substance of America’s shame: the massive use of
James Forman Jr., who is a law professor at Yale University, wrote a paper called Racial Critiques of Mass Incarceration: Beyond the New Jim Crow. In this paper, Forman Jr. identifies Alexander as one of a number of authors who have overstated and misstated their case. He observes that her framework over-emphasizes the War on Drugs and ignores violent crimes, stating that Alexander's analysis is demographically simplistic. He suggests that Alexander does not analyze the way imprisonment is now arranged by class, even among African-Americans, and says that Alexander does not discuss the mass incarceration of other races, including whites. In the section "Overlooking Race" Forman Jr. writes that the Jim Crow analogy "obscures the extent to which whites, too, are mass incarceration’s targets," noting that "Alexander mentions them only in passing; she says that mass imprisonment’s true targets are blacks, and that incarcerated whites are ‘collateral
Jim Crow, slavery and the mass incarceration are system of laws, and policies to maintain power inferiority among people of color. Alexander asserts that colorblindness cause Jim Crow to “continue” to exist. Specifically, the U.S Supreme court is not interested in how severe the racism is and its impacts. Therefore, racial injustice continues to exist, and that mass incarceration is like the Jim
We live in a society where ethnic minorities are target for every minimal action and/or crimes, which is a cause to be sentenced up to 50 years in jail. African Americans and Latinos are the ethnic minorities with highest policing crimes. In chapter two of Michelle Alexander’s book, The Lockdown, we are exposed to the different “crimes” that affects African American and Latino minorities. The criminal justice system is a topic discussed in this chapter that argues the inequality that people of color as well as other Americans are exposed to not knowing their rights. Incarceration rates, unreasonable suspicions, and pre-texts used by officers are things that play a huge role in encountering the criminal justice system, which affects the way
As our society has grown in a multitude of ways, it has remained the same concerning the systematic treatment of minority groups, especially African American people. Michelle Alexander, the author of The New Jim Crow, writes about how America has encouraged and allowed the rebirth of a new caste system through implementation of mass incarceration (2011). The creation of this new system, only backed the critical race theory that argues white racism is constructed socially and historically in America (Simba 2015). She outlines that slavery and Jim Crow laws have been redesigned into the war on drugs which has allowed the police to target communities of color and therefore keep blacks in a position of inferiority. Many factors come into play
Michelle Alexander, a civil rights lawyer and legal scholar, argues not only that mass incarceration is a “well-disguised system of racialized social control that functions in a manner strikingly similar to Jim Crow"(4), but that the prison label placed on convicts is “more damaging to the African American community than the shame and stigma associated with Jim Crow’ (17). While I had previous knowledge of the systematic racial oppression that continues to hold power in our country, I did not have any idea of to what extent the label of ‘felon’ has on the life
At the start of the 1970s, incarceration appeared to be “a practice in decline.” One of the largest problems facing the world today is the mass incarceration of African Americans, where many arrest African Americans as they claim they appear more threatening. The government has done us wrong; it can avoid these consequences without the imprisonment of these innocent people for such diminutive crimes. These harsh conditions affect many more than just the families, communities, and individuals, but also the economy as confinement has tremendous costs on society. The sad but true reality proves that any White person can do things far more extreme than a “black person.”
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.
Annotated Bibliography Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York: The New Press. Alexander opens up on the history of the criminal justice system, disciplinary crime policy and race in the U.S. detailing the ways in which crime policy and mass incarceration have worked together to continue the reduction and defeat of black Americans.
Over the decades, mass incarceration has become an important topic that people want to discuss due to the increasing number of mass incarceration. However, most of the people who are incarceration are people of color. This eventually leads to scholars concluding that there is a relationship between mass incarceration and the legacy of slavery. The reason is that people of color are the individuals who are overrepresented in prison compared to whites. If you think about it, slavery is over and African Americans are no longer mistreated; however, that is not the case as African Americans continue to face oppression from the government and police force.
The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for several reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. This literature review will discuss the ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system and how mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism has become a problem.
Michelle Alexander demonstrates in her book The New Jim Crow that systemic criminalization extends to other minority groups as well. The extent of this criminalization is shown through the control the criminal justice system exerts on minority lives. Alexander shows in The New Jim Crow that 1 in 3 young African American men are under the control of the criminal justice system through jail, prison, probation, or parole (9). Additionally, black men are 6 times more likely than white men to be incarcerated, and Latino men are 2.5 times more likely to be incarcerated than white men (Coalition on Homelessness, 56). The increased exposure to the criminal justice system that black and Latino men face not only threatens their future through the establishment of a criminal record, but it also reinforces ideas that black and Latino men are more criminally disposed than white men.