The New Jim Crow Analysis

Civil injustice directed at African Americans has been persistent throughout the history of the United States. It started with slavery, and then progressed to segregation, and today is replaced by the large incarceration rates of people of color. Michelle Alexander in her book The New Jim Crow argues that the incarceration of people of color stems from the war on drugs and the civil rights movement. Today, people of color feel the lasting effects of segregation through negative stereotypes, higher rates of arrest, and higher relative incarceration rate. The legal system of the United States unfairly targets people of color because people of darker skin tone are labeled as criminals. This stereotype stems from the civil rights movement when southern states prosecuted people of color who partook in peaceful protests like sit-ins, rallies, and boycotts. These acts of civil disobedience labeled people of color as criminals not political activists. In the 1980s, Reagan declared a war on drugs that perpetuated the stigmas of people of color. Propaganda grew the idea that poor neighborhoods with a majority of people of color were the center of the drug problem in America. Police dealt with this problem by increasing arrests and

Conviction marks citizens with a stigma that hurts their chances of finding a job and being self supporting. Many of these people lose what they owned before they were convicted of their crimes, including a place to live. Without a job or a home, people who were once criminals are given incentive to find other means for finding income, which could lead to illegal activity. After serving jail time there is usually a period of parole. In some states, during parole one loses the right to vote, making the underclass a population that is underrepresented in the politics, but overrepresented in