The New Jim Crow Summary

The New Jim Crow is a wake-up call in the midst of a long slumber of indifference to the poor and vulnerable. This book is a genuine resurrection of the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. amid the confusion of the Age of Obama. The Age of Obama is a time of historic breakthroughs at the level of symbols and political surfaces. Alexander’s subtle analysis shifts our attention from the racial symbol of America’s achievement to the actual substance of American’s shame and the massive use of state power to incarcerate hundreds of thousands of poor black males and females in the name of the bogus “war on drugs.’ Alexander takes us through the historical narrative tracing the unconscionable treatment and brutal control of black people from slavery

She addresses this era as the New Jim Crow, with its new racial caste system. What caught her attention was a poster that read “The Drug War Is The New Jim Crow.” A racial group was holding a meeting about police brutality, the new three-strikes law in California, and the expansion of America’s prison system. The misuse of the criminal justices system is a form of racialized social control having a remarkable similarity to Jim Crow. Once released, formerly incarcerated felons are confined to mainstream society, and denied access to the mainstream economy. They are forced into second-class citizenship. The war on drugs is a racist conspiracy to put blacks back in their place. This war was launched during a time when there was no real crisis, drug use was actually on a decline, plus the war only accomplished the incarceration of a large mass of people, primarily people of color. On top of that, the drug use did not go down, as that was the intentions and purpose for the war. It is assumed that the war on drugs was in response to the crack epidemic, however Ronald Regan launched the war prior to this. In the late 80’s the war on drugs policy went from just an ambition to an actual war. The war was geared towards the wrong people. The drugs themselves came from different countries. Instead of cutting off the supply, the government decided to arrest small time dealers and users. I remember in the late 80’s drug movies became popular, and at some point in the movie it was always stated that coca plants weren’t grown in these urban inner