Michelle Alexander Mass Incarceration - 1601 Words

Michelle Alexander who was born in 1968 is an associate professor of law at Ohio State University also a civil rights advocate and a writer. She is a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, and legal scholar. In recent years, she has taught at a number of universities, including Stanford Law School, where she was an associate professor of law and directed the Civil Rights Clinics. Alexander published the book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. In it, she argues that systemic racial discrimination in the United States has resumed following the Civil Rights Movements gains; the resumption is embedded in the US War on Drugs and other governmental policies and is having devastating social consequences.†¦show more content†¦Alexander asserts that this mass incarceration is not a response to an actual surge in violent crime among the African-American community, but a calculated effort to offset the gains made by the civil rights movementâ₠¬â€penalizing millions of African Americans behind bars, on probation or parole (mostly for non-violent offenses), and millions more with criminal records. Professor Alexander singles out the Nixon and Reagan administrations for particular criticism, for aligning the criminal justice system against the African-American community. â€Å"It’s easy to be completely unaware that this vast new system of racial and social control has emerged,† she says. â€Å"Unlike in Jim Crow days, there were no ‘whites only’ signs. This system is out of sight, out of mind.† In addition, according to Michelle Alexander, Mass incarceration is a system that locks people not only behind actual bars in actual prisons, but also behind virtual bars and virtual walls – walls that are invisible to the naked eye but function nearly as effectively as Jim Crow laws once did at locking people of color into a permanent second-class citizenship. The term mass incarceration re fers not only to the criminal justice system but also to the larger web of laws, rules, policies, and customs that control those labeled criminals both in and out of prison. Once released, former prisoners enter a hidden underworld of legalized discrimination and permanent socialShow MoreRelatedThe Mass Incarceration Of Black Men By Michelle Alexander971 Words   |  4 PagesAlexander’s book a contribution to nonviolent social change? Through the use of literature to inspire social change, Michelle Alexander is able to bring attention to an extremely important social issue that is very prevalent throughout our country. The issue that Alexander is writing about is the mass incarceration of black males in the United States. She describes this increase of mass incarceration in depth, and relates this modern form of social control back to an old practice of the Jim Crow laws and separateRead More The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander1182 Words   |  5 PagesThe New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is a book by Michelle Alexander, a civil rights litigator and legal scholar. The book discusses race-related issues specific to African-American males and mass incarceration in the United States. Michelle Alexander (2010) argues that despite the old Jim Crow is death, does not necessarily means the end of racial caste (p.21). In her book â€Å"Th e New Jim Crow†, Alexander describes a set of practices and social discourses that serve toRead MoreThe New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration During The Age Of Colorblindness By Michelle Alexander1665 Words   |  7 PagesIn the new proactive book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander dives into the not so complicated racial issues that plague this country that we tend to ignore. In all of history, African Americans have had to constantly fight for their freedoms and the right to be considered a human being in this society. It’s very troubling looking back and seeing where we have failed people in this country. 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The creation of Jim Crows laws were used as a tool to promote segregation among the minority and white American. Michelle Alexander’s the new Jim Crow Mass takes a look at Jim Crow laws and policies were put into place to block the social progression African-American from the post-slavery to theRead MoreMichelle Alexander s The New Jim Crow1495 Words   |  6 Pages Baker, Anderson, and Dorn (1992) talk â€Å"A Critical Thinking Approach† giving the readers six guidelines to follow when critically assessing any literary work, all of which can apply to Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow. The first guideline is about how accessible is her work. Throughout the book, Alexander made her work as clear and concise as she possibly could by explaining certain points over again in a d ifferent chapter to make sure that the audience understands what she is trying to sayRead MoreResponse Paper to Michelle Alexanders The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness743 Words   |  3 PagesThe New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness was written by Michelle Alexander to expose the truth of racial injustice in the system of mass incarceration through the comparison of the racial control during the Jim Crow Era. She reveals how race plays an important role in the American Justice System. Alexander argues about the racial bias, particularly towards African-Americans, immanent in the war on drugs as a result of their lack of political power and how the Supreme Court