Michelle Alexander The New Jim Crow Summary

In Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, she states “the enemy is racially defined” (64). As of today, African Americans have been massively incarcerated and most would point to the correlation of crime rates. However, Alexander makes the argument that part of this explanation is built upon “dominant racial narratives about crime and criminality dating back to slavery” (64). This follows a long narrative in which a majority group - whites though that does not mean every single person- during the earlier years of the United States established themselves as the top of a hierarchy built to keep not just African Americans but all minority groups below them. Each of these people have faced similar racialization over the decades since and on going

Alexander presents that though the number for those admitted to prison under drug offenses has increased regardless of race, African Americans were admitted at the highest rate during 2000 with other minority groups behind (64). While on another hand, “government data revealed that black youths were no more likely to be guilty of drug crimes than whites and that white youth were actually the most likely of any racial or ethnic group to be guilty of illegal drug possession and sales” yet do not go to prison (65). A false notion is given for drug use among African Americans which was exaggerated by the media, yet leaving the crucial information that pertains to white communities are more limited to the

During the era after Reconstruction (1865-1877) African-Americans were faced with anti-black laws that basically stripped them of rights and segregated them from whites. African-Americans could not serve on juries; obtain equal or fair housing; gain acceptance to colleges and universities; gain access to well-paying jobs; and challenge police brutality in courts. Today, African-Americans face a problem not too different under the war on drugs that led to their mass incarceration. Under the label of having been convicted of a felony, African-Americans face the same restrictions dealt when Jim Crow was enacted. As with the “Title VII of the Civil Rights Act”, those incarcerated would not be protected for discrimination in employment as it would not be categorized under race, color, religion, sex, or national origin (39). One could say this is the “new” Jim Crow and just like the “old” strips away a person’s ability to live in “normal”