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The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

Michelle Alexander

4.47 · Rating details · 82,294 ratings · 8,291 reviews

"Jarvious Cotton's great-great-grandfather could not vote as a slave. His great-grandfather was beaten to death by the Klu Klux Klan for attempting to vote. His grandfather was prevented from voting by Klan intimidation; his father was barred by poll taxes and literacy tests. Today, Cotton cannot vote because he, like many black men in the United States, has been labeled a ...more

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Published January 5th 2010 by The New Press Inc.

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May 05, 2016 Bill Kerwin rated it really liked it

Shelves: black-studies

In February of 2016, a powerful article appeared in The Nation: “Why Hillary Clinton Doesn't Deserve the Black Vote.” The name of its author—Michelle Alexander—struck me as familiar. Then I realized she was the Ohio State law professor who had caused some stir five years ago with her book The New Jim Crow, a book which demonstrated how our criminal justice system was in effect little more than a system of racial oppression. It was then I decide I had put off reading The New Jim Crow long enough.
In February of 2016, a powerful article appeared in The Nation: “Why Hillary Clinton Doesn't Deserve the Black Vote.” The name of its author—Michelle Alexander—struck me as familiar. Then I realized she was the Ohio State law professor who had caused some stir five years ago with her book The New Jim Crow, a book which demonstrated how our criminal justice system was in effect little more than a system of racial oppression. It was then I decide I had put off reading The New Jim Crow long enough.

Alexander has the credentials and the experience to know whereof she speaks. After graduating from Stanford Law and clerking for Justice Blackmun, she went to work for the California ACLU, specializing in criminal justice reform. It was there she began to realize that the American criminal justice system was not designed to reform criminals, or to control them, or even merely to punish them; instead, like the Jim Crow laws in the old South, its result was a virtual caste system, a method of social control that excludes black people in general—and poor black males in particular—from full participation in American society. Its most noticeable effect is mass incarceration: today, the United States locks up more people per capita than any other country in the world, and the number of black people in prison is three times greater than their percentage of the general population.

But The New Jim Crow demonstrates that it is not merely the large number of people in prison, but the severe curtailment of their rights after they leave prison that generates much of the system's hopelessness. Felons are excluded from public housing, welfare, employment opportunities, and even in many states the right to vote. These felons—a significant percentage of the urban black population—become an underclass unable to rise, an underclass filled with pariahs who are excluded from America's freedoms.

Although many people see the rise of mass incarceration as a response to the crack “epidemic” of the 80's, Alexander argues persuasively that it was instead a retaliation against the civil rights gains of the 60's and 70's. “Law and Order” had for years been a code phrase for racial control, exploited by Nixon and others, but it was Reagan's “War on Drugs”—unleashed two years before cocaine was any kind of a problem—that put the system in operation. But it was not until the '90's when Bill Clinton signed the the 1994 crime bill (which Bernie Sanders voted for), and subsequently ended “welfare as we know it,” that the system achieved the merciless efficiency that it maintains to the present day.

This is an important book, and one that progressives like myself—who have put the Bernie shirts away and now display a Hillary sign on the lawn (or at least displayed one until some joker in the neighborhood stole it)—should read carefully and take to heart. It outlines the formidable task--whoever may be president--that we have ahead of us in the years to come. ...more

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Jun 11, 2011 Judith rated it it was amazing

Shelves: obom-candidates, from-the-steps

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander will pick up your everyday white liberal guilt, tie it in knots, and leave you wondering how you could have ever been so simple-minded as to think colorblindness was benign, let alone desirable. While the “War on Drugs,” hopped up on federal funds and confiscated property, is systematically exploiting African American neighborhoods to supply the ever-growing prison industry with human beings to incarcerate, t ...more

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May 16, 2020 Mario the lone bookwolf rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 0-social-criticism

Hardly an author opened my eyes for the real dimensions and roots of the prison industry as Alexander did, she nails down the problems intrinsic to an injustice system growing like a virus or tumor in a once prospering nation.

I´ll compare 3 examples of systems, from best to worst, to demonstrate that it´s not just a problem of hidden, suppressed racism, but a question of the societal model too.

1. Fair, sustainable, eco social, Keynesian, Nordic model countries with rehabilitative justice su ...more

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Feb 13, 2015 Julie Christine rated it it was amazing

Shelves: best-of-2015, read-2015, social-political-commentary

1988. English 201. I was a college freshman, required to write a paper about fads vs. trends. For reasons I cannot recall, I chose to write about the War on Drugs. I can’t recall anything about the paper, either, though I can still see the “This Is Your Brain On Drugs” commercial that was rolled out in 1987 by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. Washington D. C. was embroiled in the Iran-Contra Affair. It was an election year. Perestroika had just begun rolling off western tongues. Benazir 1988. English 201. I was a college freshman, required to write a paper about fads vs. trends. For reasons I cannot recall, I chose to write about the War on Drugs. I can’t recall anything about the paper, either, though I can still see the “This Is Your Brain On Drugs” commercial that was rolled out in 1987 by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. Washington D. C. was embroiled in the Iran-Contra Affair. It was an election year. Perestroika had just begun rolling off western tongues. Benazir Bhutto was named Prime Minister of Pakistan. I was eighteen and although I knew all about apartheid in South Africa, and stood in line to see Mississippi Burning when it was released late that year, I had been raised in nearly all-white communities in rural Washington state. The notion that the War on Drugs was at the heart of a “stunningly comprehensive and well-disguised system of racialized social control that functions in a manner strikingly similar to Jim Crow” (p 4) would have been beyond my limited understanding of race in these United States.

Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is stunning. The racialized social control she writes of in the introduction is quite simple to state, but devastating in complexity: the United States, since the dismantling of Jim Crow began in the mid-1940s, has sought to maintain the social dominance of its white population by the systematic mass incarceration of people of color, primarily young black men.

You can’t believe that so radical a policy, carried out on a massive scale that requires the collusion of each branch of government, not to mention the FBI, CIA, and local law enforcement, is possible? Don’t take my word for it. Read Alexander’s painstakingly documented book. Follow up her statements with research of your own; sadly, it’s very easy to connect the dots, all the way back to the start of slavery in the Colonies, long before the Federation was formed, long before the Constitution of the United States declared that slaves were defined as three-fifths of a man.

I could provide you the litany of statistical evidence Alexander lays out, but it’s hard to know where to start or where to stop. The data are here; the numbers are real, and they are soul-crushing. I challenge you to read this and learn for yourself. What makes this book so compelling, however, is Alexander’s ability to put human faces in front of the statistics, to show us that our shared history has neither a shared interpretation nor shared consequences.

Alexander effectively repeats and summarizes the concepts on a regular basis, which is a welcome relief, because so much of this information is hard to process. I expended much energy in rage and frustration of how this system came to be and is allowed to continue that I needed the frequent re-focus. About two-thirds of the way in, she offers this summation:

This, in brief, is how the system works: The War on Drugs is the vehicle through which extraordinary numbers of black men are forced into the cage. The entrapment occurs in three distinct phases . . . The first stage is the roundup. Vast numbers of people are swept into the criminal justice system by the police, who conduct drug operations primarily in poor communities of color. … The conviction marks the beginning of the second phase: the period of formal control. Once arrested, defendants are generally denied meaningful legal representation and pressured to plead guilty whether they are or not. …The final stage has been dubbed by some advocates as the period of invisible punishment. … a form of punishment that operates largely outside of public view and takes effect outside the traditional sentencing framework. . . and collectively ensures that the offenders will never integrate into mainstream, white society.

One of the most thought-provoking issues raised in The New Jim Crow is the concept of colorblindness, and how Martin Luther King’s call to create a society where people are not "judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" has been badly distorted by politicians in their attempts to dismantle affirmative action and anti-poverty programs. Recognition of this distortion is not new, of course, but it’s been skillfully employed in the mass incarceration movement by those who don’t want to appear racist. As Alexander states:

“In the era of colorblindness, it is no longer socially permissible to use race, explicitly, as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. So we don’t. Rather than rely on race, we use our criminal justice system to label people of color “criminals” and then engage in all the practices we supposedly left behind. Today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all the ways that it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans. Once you’re labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination—employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial of educational opportunity, denial of food stamps and other public benefits, and exclusion from jury service—are suddenly legal. As a criminal, you have scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a black man living in Alabama at the height of Jim Crow. We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.”

Martin Luther King, Jr fought for a society where people were not judged by the color of their skin. He never called for the color of their skin to be ignored.

Michelle Alexander states in the opening sentence that

This book is not for everyone. I have a specific audience in mind—people who care deeply about racial justice but who, for any number of reasons, do not yet appreciate the magnitude faced by communities of color as a result of mass incarceration…(and) those who have been struggling to persuade their friends, neighbors, relatives, teachers, co-workers, or political representatives . . . but who have lacked the facts and data to back up their claims. Last, but definitely not least, I am writing this book for all those trapped within America’s latest caste system. You may be locked up our lock out of mainstream society, but you are not forgotten.

So it’s natural to end such a bleak assessment of race in America with the question, what can be done? Michelle Alexander addresses this extensively, including taking the traditional civil rights organizations to task for turning their backs on the long-standing issue of mass incarceration of black and brown Americans.

As a white woman living again in predominantly white, rural Washington state, I despair at my ability to contribute anything useful to the dialogue, much less to be an agent of change. I accept I’ll be branded an SJW (fine by me) and shout mostly to a choir of my own peers. But I know, after reading what Michelle Alexander wrote in her preface, that this book is for me; I am the audience she had in mind. She also states in the introduction that:

A new social consensus must be forged about race and the role of race in defining the basic structure of our society, if we ever hope to abolish the New Jim Crow. The new consensus must begin with dialogue, a conversation that fosters critical consciousness, a key prerequisite to effective social action.

After Michael Brown was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, MO last August, and the Black Lives Matter campaign spread across social media, I vowed to listen, read, and better educate myself about racial injustices, as well as hold myself accountable for on my own assumptions and prejudices. The New Jim Crow makes me uncomfortable; it makes me angry, ashamed, fearful, and determined. Determined never to be so blind again. ...more

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Sep 06, 2018 BlackOxford rated it it was amazing

Shelves: american, african-american

Criminal Purpose

Intention is not the equivalent of purpose - neither for individuals nor for societies. Intention is mental and ephemeral, an idea-before-the-fact which is part of a complex of other ideas, many of which may be contrary or contradictory. Intention is expressed in what we say about what we want. Purpose is the behavioral result of actions which are actually taken, and which reveal our frequently unstated or even unconscious commitments. Purpose is the concrete effects of what we d Criminal Purpose

Intention is not the equivalent of purpose - neither for individuals nor for societies. Intention is mental and ephemeral, an idea-before-the-fact which is part of a complex of other ideas, many of which may be contrary or contradictory. Intention is expressed in what we say about what we want. Purpose is the behavioral result of actions which are actually taken, and which reveal our frequently unstated or even unconscious commitments. Purpose is the concrete effects of what we do; it is what happens. Purpose emerges from intentions through politics. We can rationalise, delude, and comfort ourselves about intention but purpose is the reality which insists on being seen for what it is. And purpose is often surprising, and sometimes ugly.

The stated intention of the American legal system is equal justice under the law, a part of the American Dream of ‘opportunity’. An actual purpose of this system is the political sterilisation and social suppression of Black America. The intentional Dream is a purposeful Illusion. It matters little whether the majority of Americans intend for this to be the case. The politics of accommodating conflicting intentions has ensured that it has come about. This is the argument presented by Michelle Alexander in The New Jim Crow. It becomes a compelling argument once it is recognised that publicly expressed intentions - especially political intentions - have little to do with national purpose.

The American ‘War on Drugs’ is a central example of the phenomenon. Illegal drug usage was on the decline in the US in the 1970’s. The expressed political intention was to eliminate it entirely from American society. The real purpose was revealed only as the accompanying intentions of Black Ops in Central America, Conservative reaction to Great Society and Civil Rights legislation, and unresolved racial hatred began to interact. The behavioral purpose was coherent and deadly: the short term destruction of Black communities through the introduction of crack cocaine and associated criminality; and the long term political disenfranchisement of Black citizens through legislation that denies voting and a range of other fights to drug crime felons.

The purposeful results of the war have been remarkable, and remarkably unnoticed politically in America. What politician can stand against drug legislation while the war against drugs still rages? What liberal intellectual can deny the continuing impoverishment and dependency on public assistance in the Black community? And even in those organisations meant to promote the cause of Black equality like the NAACP, would it not be fatal for the future of affirmative action if they were to align with a ‘weak’ stance on crime? A perfect sociological storm therefore - one might almost say conspiracy, and who knows, it may well be.

It is important to understand that the national purpose has nothing to do with the reduction of crime. Criminality is part of the purpose. Alexander says “The term mass incarceration refers 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 social exclusion. They are members of America’s new undercaste.” This undercaste is in fact a new way to legitimate racial oppression. That is its purpose regardless of intention. Only when someone like Alexander articulates this sort of implicit purpose, is it possible to do something about it.

The new undercaste in other words is no accident; it is imposed subservience- slavery - by other means. This is clear if one looks at the history of Black oppression in America. Alexis de Toqueville, as usual, provides a convenient datum from the mid-nineteenth century: “The Negro race will never leave those shores of the American continent to which it was brought by the passions and the vices of Europeans; and it will not disappear from the New World as long as it continues to exist. The inhabitants of the United States may retard the calamities which they apprehend, but they cannot now destroy their efficient cause.” In this context The New Jim Crow is but the latest attempt to retard and destroy. The journey from indentured bondage to slavery to violent segregation to criminal servitude is one of continuously pursued purpose. This is the real Deep State Conspiracy.

Postscript: I am once again struck with the ability of literature to anticipate science in the articulation of social issues. In this case a novel such as Hubert Selby’s Last Exit to Brooklyn elaborates just the kind of criminilisation of a social group through the directed use of law more than 50 years before Alexander’s analysis. See: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ...more

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Jul 25, 2019 Trevor rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, race, social-theory

You need to read this. I don’t pretend to have a terribly high opinion of the US. Like Australia, it is a settler society that really needs to reconcile and make amends with its own past. For instance, until very recently the US had a holocaust museum, but no museum to slavery. The history of slavery and of Jim Crow is a stain that marks the entire sweep of US history – and that stain is red, because it is in blood.

The problem is that since the US has never reconciled itself with its past, it fi You need to read this. I don’t pretend to have a terribly high opinion of the US. Like Australia, it is a settler society that really needs to reconcile and make amends with its own past. For instance, until very recently the US had a holocaust museum, but no museum to slavery. The history of slavery and of Jim Crow is a stain that marks the entire sweep of US history – and that stain is red, because it is in blood.

The problem is that since the US has never reconciled itself with its past, it finds it impossible to see how the stereotypes and common sense assumptions that pervade its national consciousness remain profoundly racist. In fact, a large part of the point of this book is to show that ‘colour blind’ visions of US race relations today are perhaps the largest problem facing people of colour. From slavery, to Jim Crow, to the criminalisation of black America, the thing that makes the new racial system so effective is that it is hidden in plain sight.

Effectively, the US has an injustice system, rather than a justice system. I mean, the system is constructed to create criminals, it is created to destroy lives – and it does so in ways that make the pathways of escape from the systematic injustices of ‘law and order’ so narrow that hardly anyone can make it through. Well, when I say that, that only really applies if you are black or brown. White people are much less likely to be caught in the structural traps set by the criminal injustice system – but, hasn’t that always been thus?

The problem is the ‘war on drugs’. By any measure – well, other than counting the wealth of the owners of private prisons in the US, and criminalising huge numbers of black and brown people – the war on drugs has been an abject failure. The US now has a quarter of the people imprisoned in the world. It is quite amusing hearing people from the US go on about their love of freedom – it displays a level of double speak that would make Orwell blush. But the war on drugs has been used most effectively to put black and brown America back in their place after the Civil Rights victories of the 1950s and 60s. As the author points out repeatedly here, whites and blacks use drugs at similar rates, they commit most crimes at similar rates (although, there is evidence that whites are actually more likely than blacks to use drugs) however, the social stereotypes are that blacks are the drug users and drug dealers and that stereotype is then realised in the way blacks are treated by the police force, and then by the criminal justice system, and then by the prison system, and finally in how they are treated after they leave the prison system. A white person caught with drugs is treated better by the criminal justice system at every single stage than a black person is. They are less likely to be arrested in the first place, less likely to get a conviction, less likely to end up in jail – and all of this while being just as likely to commit the crime. But the system has been so rigged by its assertion of ‘colour blindness’ that even the profiling that clearly happens, and the disparities in sentencing that are blindingly obvious, cannot even be complained about, since everyone already knows that ‘racism doesn’t exist’ any more – I mean, President Obama was black, wasn’t he…?

I’m not going to list the examples she gives throughout this of the jaw-droppingly horrible treatment of people – I kept finding myself making involuntary noises throughout reading this. Honestly, there were points in this so shocking I almost laughed out loud, it was like something from an incredibly poor taste comedy show – you know, called Justice in America. The chapter where she details how police are encouraged to confiscate ‘the proceeds of crime’ is so disturbing that Kafka could have written it. No, in fact, Kafka would probably think it was too over the top and so even he might have shied away from writing it.

The worst of this is that it isn’t all that clear to me how the gross injustices detailed in this book are ever going to be overcome. Defining blacks as criminals has been a master-stroke – I mean, it makes it nearly impossible for even the left to support the mostly black men who have had their citizenship rights removed from them – being someone who supports blacks is bad enough, but someone who supports criminals? Who is going to do that? Potentially, not even fellow blacks. Really, this book would make you weep.

A part of this where I made one of my little noises was where she said that prisons are often placed out in the country, you know, where mostly white people live – where the prisoners then swell the local population, but, since they are prisoners, where they aren’t allowed to vote. This gives these mostly white areas more representative power (given their larger population), and it simultaneously takes representative power away from the black neighbourhoods were the prisoners would otherwise live. Three-fifths compromise, anyone? Yep, it’s just like being back in the good ol’ days when a black person’s vote was worth only three-fifths of that of a white person’s – the more things change…

The use of shame to keep black people in their place is particularly disturbing, but has proven stunningly effective. This book is a case study in discussing how effectively shame can be deployed as a form of symbolic violence against an entire population.

Like I said, this really needs to be compulsory reading. Once again, I’ve come away from reading a book utterly despising both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Sure, I would be forced to support either of them before Trump – but the harm they both did as Presidents is beyond disgusting. ...more

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Feb 20, 2017 Carol rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, diaspora, history

The New Jim Crow is essential reading for Americans who don't or haven't followed these issues closely over the last 30 years. It's a well-organized, thoughtful, accessible read - neither too light or too cluttered with footnotes. If you have followed the reasons for and impacts of the US approach to incarceration on the African-American community (and be honest with yourself on whether you've read a few WashingtonPost or Atlantic Magazine articles from time to time or really dug in over time on ...more

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Oct 05, 2018 Diane S ☔ rated it really liked it

I grew up in Chicago so I am well aware of how race can divide a city. I've lived it, seen it, the good and the bad. There are no problems harder to solve then sociological ones. One can mandate changes, change the laws, make more and more things people say and do illegal, but.....it doesn't change the way they think, change their long held beliefs, inborn prejudices and biases. Why I believe things only change on the surface, looks like we're making progress, but look underneath and you'll find ...more

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Mar 28, 2012 T Hamboyan Harrison rated it it was amazing

No, black people aren't the majority in our American prisons because they're more likely to commit crimes. They're there because the "War on Drugs" has been applied to them more frequently than any other racial group.

Give a damn, people. Read this book and stop lying to yourselves. ...more

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Dec 25, 2016 Thomas rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own-electronic, five-stars, nonfiction, read-on-kindle, 2nd-favorites

One of the most important books I have ever read. With eloquence, passion, and careful research, Michelle Alexander shows how slavery in the United States has not disappeared - it has just changed shape, into the mass incarceration of black men. Among many formidable arguments, Alexander emphasizes the importance of doing away with the notion of colorblindness and how we need to see race more than ever. A quote that highlights her point:

"In the era of colorblindness, it is no longer socially per One of the most important books I have ever read. With eloquence, passion, and careful research, Michelle Alexander shows how slavery in the United States has not disappeared - it has just changed shape, into the mass incarceration of black men. Among many formidable arguments, Alexander emphasizes the importance of doing away with the notion of colorblindness and how we need to see race more than ever. A quote that highlights her point:

"In the era of colorblindness, it is no longer socially permissible to use race, explicitly, as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. So we don’t. Rather than rely on race, we use our criminal justice system to label people of color 'criminals' and then engage in all the practices we supposedly left behind. Today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all the ways that it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans. Once you’re labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination—employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial of educational opportunity, denial of food stamps and other public benefits, and exclusion from jury service—are suddenly legal. As a criminal, you have scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a black man living in Alabama at the height of Jim Crow. We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it."

Overall, I recommend this book to everyone. You really should read this now. Alexander does a remarkable job of revealing uncomfortable truths about the United States - mainly, that racism is well and alive - while urging us to take action, to treat each other with compassion, and to recognize that true compassion involves taking action against institutionalized forms of oppression like mass incarceration. In other words: donate to the ACLU, go out and join protests, and say that "black lives matter" without an ounce of hesitation. I know I have a lot of work to do - and I hope we can all fight together. I will end this brief review with some of Alexander's words, because she says everything way better than I can:

"Seeing race is not the problem. Refusing to care for the people we see is the problem. The fact that the meaning of race may evolve over time or lose much of its significance is hardly a reason to be struck blind. We should hope not for a colorblind society but instead for a world in which we can see each other fully, learn from each other, and do what we can to respond to each other with love. That was King's dream - a society that is capable of seeing each of us, as we are, with love. That is a goal worth fighting for." ...more

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Feb 25, 2011 Lumumba Shakur rated it it was amazing

Shelves: political-science, favorites, civil-rights-movement, african-american-studies

It is Michelle Alexander's experience as a lawyer which makes this such a successful piece. It is not novelty that makes this book so profound, but the authority upon which the argument is made: simple statistics and inarguable facts. In the very beginning, Mrs. Alexander states for whom this book was written: people who have a hard time convincing friends, neighbors and others that there is something oddly familiar with the current order. She has done this perfectly and thus I highly recommend It is Michelle Alexander's experience as a lawyer which makes this such a successful piece. It is not novelty that makes this book so profound, but the authority upon which the argument is made: simple statistics and inarguable facts. In the very beginning, Mrs. Alexander states for whom this book was written: people who have a hard time convincing friends, neighbors and others that there is something oddly familiar with the current order. She has done this perfectly and thus I highly recommend this book to anyone who has a hard time convincing others that the current state of Blackamerica is not due to a mortal/cultural flaw, but instead stems from a perfect storm of institutional control that perhaps was initially well-intended, but at present insist upon maintaining a status quo that has decimated the African-American community and is doing the same to our Latino brothers and sisters.

I was both vindicated and saddened in finding evidence from a lawyer in confirmation of my understanding that the United States Supreme Court, particularly the current make-up, has been a friend to the political and economic elite of this country, an enemy to the politically impotent masses and a main obstacle against any meaningful change in society at large. It was both shocking and appauling to see that the chief justices in the land acknowledging the existence of corrosive racism that has become inherent in the criminal "justice" system, while refusing to do anything but maintain the status quo since the only viable solution would be to dismantle the system - something which they deemed impossible. Once we reach that level of protectionism by the very same institution that is supposed to be the ultimate check on executive and legislative authority, what is left but a complete overhaul of the system - dare I say "revolution"?

The only criticism I have is that in her initial summary of the chapter contents, she seems to often have simply copied key sentences word for word, which is rather annoying, but minimal (and easily forgotten). Stylistically, it made for a redundancy and the book perhaps would have been better off without any foreshadowing summaries at all (current and future authors take note).

It has always been my person theory that most conspiracies are not concocted in smokey backrooms, but simply come into existence when particular interests converge and work towards the same goal in a previously established order. In short, what you have before you is the anatomy of just such a conspiracy and an uncomfortable reality that needs to be first acknowledged before we can ever begin to talk about social, racial and economic justice in the United States in any meaningful way. ...more

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Jul 19, 2016 Esil rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook

5 stars for in depth, persuasive and eye opening analysis of complex and important issues. In The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander argues that the war on drugs and its consequent incarceration of a disproportionate number of black American men amounts to a new form of racialized social control akin to the Jim Crow laws. She does an extraordinary job reviewing history, the different branches of the legal system, and the economic, social and political circumstances of black Americans today. She do ...more

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Nov 12, 2015 Gonzo rated it did not like it

This book has a number of things going for it:
1. Most people who read this book are not good with numbers
2. Most people who read this book are not good with complicated arguments, especially if these arguments involve numbers.
3. People who are not good with numbers and arguments generally allow this deficit to be filled with an abundance of sympathy and feeling.
4. Sympathy and feeling facilitate sonorousness much better than facts and reason

That this book is tripe would, in better, freer ages, ...more

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May 18, 2018 Emily May rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2018, nonfiction

A must-read.

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Jul 24, 2017 Scott rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fic

If you deride the Black Lives Matter movement and believe that there is no substance to claims of African Americans being unfairly targeted and victimized by law enforcement then you should read this book. You probably won’t, but you should.

The New Jim Crow delves deeply into the tragic, seemingly near-invisible underside of the high-profile shootings of people like Philando Castile - the millions of other people of color in the United States who are imprisoned and subsequently discriminated ag If you deride the Black Lives Matter movement and believe that there is no substance to claims of African Americans being unfairly targeted and victimized by law enforcement then you should read this book. You probably won’t, but you should.

The New Jim Crow delves deeply into the tragic, seemingly near-invisible underside of the high-profile shootings of people like Philando Castile - the millions of other people of color in the United States who are imprisoned and subsequently discriminated against by their own governments.

Michelle Alexander’s book demonstrates how the US policing and justice system has grown into a vast behemoth of a system (three hundred thousand inmates in 1980 blowing out to more than two million prisoners now), a prison-industrial complex reliant on the continued criminalization of millions of Americans.

And not just any Americans. Across states, in both the federal and local justice systems Alexander shows that it is people from minorities, particularly African American and Latino minorities, who appear to be disproportionately stopped, searched, arrested and imprisoned. This is despite crime statistics showing no greater prediliction for crime in these communities - African Americans use and deal drugs at very similar rates to whites, but are arrested and incarcerated at a far higher rate.

The impact of this discriminatory targeting is so great, and so long-lasting, that Alexander compares it to the impact of racial segregation under the Southern USA’s Jim Crow regime. And argues that the widespread criminalization of black men under the aegis of the war on drugs, often for crimes considered minor in most developed nations, is essentially a form of state control. Once convicted African Americans face being under the control of the state- as a prisoner or parolee - for years, and then face mind-boggling discrimination (the removal of voting rights, the inability to access public housing, being barred from receiving food stamps) for a crime that can be as inconsequential as the possession of a single joint. One small conviction can sentence a person to life-long penury, marking them as a criminal forever and making them far more likely to turn to crime to survive.

You may not agree withAlexander’s hypothesis, but regardless, some of what she reveals about the expansion of police powers in the US is genuinely terrifying.

Law changes connected to “The war on drugs’ mean that Police departments can be financially rewarded for increasing their numbers of drug arrests and convictions, encouraging them to go for easy drug collars rather than pursue more serious crimes. Furthermore laws have been passed that allow police to financially benefit from seized property have incentivized the confiscation of people’s cars, homes, and even pocket change with the inevitable result of police wrongly taking people’s possessions, and even funneling confiscated assets into corruption. Mothers have lost their homes due to one of their children hiding drugs in their ceiling, people have lost their cars for inadvertently driving a drug dealer somewhere, and the standard of evidence required for such seizures is so low that property owners who wish to contest this legalized theft are forced into court proceedings to prove their possessions are ‘innocent’.

Police departments have vastly scaled up their paramilitary SWAT forces, arming them heavily, and using them seemingly without restriction.

Constitutional rights- such as the right to be free from unjustified search and seizure – have been shredded, allowing police to pretty much search whomever they please, whenever they please. These powers have been upheld by the Supreme Court, and seem to have little chance of being reined back.

It’s all pretty scary, and Alexander offers avenues in the last part of her book for mobilizing against this injustice, for bringing civil rights era-style change to the 21st century.

In parts this book is a little academic, and it occasionally repeats arguments, but the injustices and abuses it reveals are of such a scale that they bear being hammered home over and again. What is happening is an appalling waste. The talents, dreams and potential of millions are being laid waste, and the US is missing out on the contributions of vast numbers of citizens, instead condemning them to a life of failure and discrimination. ...more

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Jun 05, 2020 Mara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio, recommended-to-me, ebook-owned

4.5 stars - This was such a great read for so many reasons... on its face, this is an excellently argued work of historical non-fiction. Even apart from the profundity & implications of the subject matter itself, this book is well researched, well structured, and well written to an extent that makes it a pleasure to read in a way that puts it in the upper echelon of its genre.
Beyond the book as a book, I was also struck by how much there was to learn from this book apart from its main thesis. B ...more

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Mar 27, 2014 Christopher rated it it was amazing

Shelves: american, non-fiction, 21st-century

I don't even know where to start. I'm not a political type of guy. I generally strive to avoid any political discourse with friends, family, or strangers. I've never picketed or protested or sat in. I mostly want to mind my own business.

But every now and then a portrayal of injustice smacks me upside the head, rattles by brains around a bit, and I'm shaken out of my apathy. I realize that not everyone was born with a shiny, silver spoon in his mouth like me. No, no, in fact, I'm among the most I don't even know where to start. I'm not a political type of guy. I generally strive to avoid any political discourse with friends, family, or strangers. I've never picketed or protested or sat in. I mostly want to mind my own business.

But every now and then a portrayal of injustice smacks me upside the head, rattles by brains around a bit, and I'm shaken out of my apathy. I realize that not everyone was born with a shiny, silver spoon in his mouth like me. No, no, in fact, I'm among the most blessed of people in existence.

But this review is not about me, so why am I talking about myself?

Here's the thesis of the book: "By targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control—relegating millions to a permanent second-class status—even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness." (That's copied and pasted from the book description on Amazon.)

That's a pretty big claim, huh? Is the justice system really analogous with Jim Crow? I was skeptical at first and it took the majority of the book to really convince me of it. There's a neuron somewhere in my brain that misfires when it tries to process the idea that racism is inherent in the design of my country's laws. (Side note: "Design" may be a misleading word in that it implies the intent of the system to suppress minorities. I do not think that lawmakers consciously designed the justice system to suppress minorities, but that there is a confluence of situations that result in our system being overwhelmingly detrimental for minorities. It's unclear whether the author believes in an intentional design or not. Sometimes her language implies it, but other times she is careful not to imply it)

Nevertheless, I am utterly convinced now that the criminal justice system is fundamentally flawed, to the detriment of minorities and to the benefit of whites. The War on Drugs, conscious and unconscious racial prejudices in the public, the media, police, and courts, overly harsh penalties for drug crimes, lack of education about Constitutional rights, unfair and manipulative tactics by police and prosecutors, restriction of Constitutional rights for ex-felons, and many other factors have converged to create a racial "underclass".

I wish I could explain it all to you, but I don't understand all of it myself; I'm still in shock. If you're American, I would especially recommend you to read this book. I (admittedly, the non-political person that I am) think that this is the great social crisis of our time and most people are unaware of it. ...more

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Mar 19, 2011 Lady Jane added it

Shelves: non-fiction

The content of this book is so disturbing that I had to take a break from reading it for a week or so. I am still trying to absorb and synthesize the information. I will return later to re-read the last chapter. It is a powerful read, well worth the time and emotional energy.
I live in a city where I can bike a few miles, cross a few neighborhoods and see the divides between the rich, middle-class and poor. I live in a city with a stop-and-frisk policy that unfairly targets African-Americans. I ...more

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Feb 29, 2012 Vannessa Anderson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: american-history, nonfiction

"... I came to see that mass incarceration in the United States had, in fact, emerged as a stunningly comprehensive and well-disguised system of racialized social control that functions in a manner strikingly similar to Jim Crow."

"… Once they are released, they are often denied the right to vote, excluded from juries, and relegated to a racially segregated and subordinated existence. Through a web of laws, regulations, and informal rules, all of which are powerfully reinforced by social stigma, ...more

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Jun 20, 2020 Kevin Shepherd rated it it was amazing

Shelves: crime, non-fiction, politics, reviewed, own, race-social-justice, sociology

“...the hands of none of us are clean if we bend not our energies to righting these great wrongs” ~W.E.B. Du Bois

Michelle Alexander’s critique of racism in America is thorough, honest, and illuminating. I would be skeptical of an “informed opinion” from anyone who has not read this book and come to terms with its indictments.

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Mar 23, 2012 Mal Warwick rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction

One of the Most Important Books Published in the English Language So Far This Century

Settle down now, class! It’s time for your pop quiz:

1. The number of Americans with criminal records is approximately: (a) 21.3 million, (b) 9 million, (c) 4.5 million, (d) 65 million

2. The highest incidence of the use and sale of illegal drugs is found in communities characterized as: (a) Asian, (b) African-American, (c) Latino, (d) White

3. The percentage of federal prisoners convicted of violent crimes is ( ...more

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Jan 06, 2019 Peter rated it it was amazing

Shelves: social-justice, african-american-writers

If you aren’t familiar with how America has expressed its racism institutionally since the demise of slavery and the repeal of the overtly racist Jim Crowe laws, you might want to read this book. The author spells out in plain language how our laws and our courts have followed a racist agenda designed to rid our streets of young black men and other so called undesirables.

These laws began in the 1970s, picked up steam under the guise of the war on drugs, and kept rolling with the conservative re ...more

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Jun 24, 2020 Roy Lotz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: art-of-compromise, highly-recommended-favorites, americana

A war has been declared against poor communities of color, and police are expected to wage it.

When I was in high school, I was taught a story about American history. It went basically like this: The Founding Fathers created the Bill of Rights, which enshrined basic personal liberties into law. But being flawed men, they did not think of extending these rights to black slaves. This error was corrected over time: we fought the civil war, struck down Jim Crow, and marched for civil rights—tryin ...more

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Jul 09, 2020 Malia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, best-of-2020

This books is deeply thought-provoking, filled with statistics, historical facts, analyses and, significantly, advice on how to move towards creating a more equitable and just society for all. This book and Paul Butler's Chokehold go had in hand, and I would recommend them both highly.

Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com ...more

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Sep 16, 2016 Lauren Cecile rated it it was amazing

A must-read for anyone who is serious about understanding the current state of law, order and justice.

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Aug 22, 2020 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020-shelf, non-fiction, political

A little bit of honesty here:

This is an extremely important book that too few people will read.

"Why?"

Because it tackles the systemic institutional racism issue and breaks down all the many aspects that turn it into a full-blown machine.

"Wait. Huh? Why wouldn't people want to have that?"

Because it's understandably complicated and people are afraid of complicated.

"Oh. Right."

But this does not mean it shouldn't be read. Indeed, I think everyone should read it and understand it.

I've personally be ...more

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Apr 05, 2017 Pink rated it it was amazing

Where to start with this? Okay, if I'm completely honest, although I've long considered the justice system in America to have grave institutional racism, I've probably always looked at this the wrong way around. Being black in America = having less opportunities and resources. When that comes to living in ghettoised areas, with no jobs, inadequate schooling, bad housing and no foreseeable way out, turning to a life of crime may look like an easy and understandable option. But what if it isn't th Where to start with this? Okay, if I'm completely honest, although I've long considered the justice system in America to have grave institutional racism, I've probably always looked at this the wrong way around. Being black in America = having less opportunities and resources. When that comes to living in ghettoised areas, with no jobs, inadequate schooling, bad housing and no foreseeable way out, turning to a life of crime may look like an easy and understandable option. But what if it isn't the lack of a home, money or opportunities that drives people to break the law, but being unfairly targeted within the system, having done nothing, or little wrong, that leads to being labelled as a criminal. So now you cannot get a job, home, or financial assistance, as you are no longer a worthwhile member of the community, deserving of help. Now what do you do to keep a roof over your head? Who can you turn to when you'll be arrested just for hanging out in your home area, with your previous associates, or as they are often otherwise known, friends and family? How can you make money, yet stay out of trouble, when government agencies seem to be trying their hardest to make things difficult. If it was hard enough before being labelled a criminal, think how hard it is after.

Now I'm not saying that all offenders, black or white, are innocent victims. Of course there's a lot of bad motherfuckers out there, who we'd happily keep off the streets, no matter what your views are on incarceration. But what about non-violent crimes? Yes personal drug use, but also small misdemeanours like breaking traffic laws, which every single car driver has done in their life. Only some of us get purposely targeted with an agenda. Not everyone who breaks the law needs a jail sentence, but what colour your skin is makes a difference, in whether you'll be let off, or offered a plea bargain. Threats of a felony record and losing your children, make a guilty plea look like the wiser option, but without having a lifetime of consequences explained to you. Rarely does anyone actually go to court.

As for the war on drugs. This isn't about targeting the organised crime gangs making $$$ and causing a menace to society. If it was, they'd be the ones getting prosecuted. Instead, it's about going after certain groups of small time drug users. Marijuana, a drug that's largely been decriminalised, enabling plenty of clean cut white men to profit, is not an option to those with criminal records. So what could have been an avenue into legal employment is still a closed door to many black, previously convicted users. In states where it's still a crime, the white teenager is rarely targeted, or if they are caught, they're seen as blowing of steam and often given a second chance, an opportunity rarely afforded to black teenagers. Of the harder drugs, we have the mostly white used cocaine, with it's much lessor sentencing of the black used crack. It doesn't take a genius to realise why some drugs are targeted above others and it's not about their harmful effects, it's about who uses them. Now I'm not disillusioned enough to think that all drug users are nice people. Some are violent offenders, but that's a separate crime to be dealt with, some are neglecting their children and while that's of vital importance to address, a prison sentence and criminal record is unlikely to make anyone's situation better.

I should point out that in the short space of this review, I can only put forward a very simplistic opinion. The issue of drug use and criminality is a lot more complex than I can possibly tackle here. Complete decriminalisation is an option, but it's not where things currently stand. So without giving all black male drug users a free pass, we should still examine why they have disproportionally higher conviction rates and longer sentences than white males. Is this an unbelievable coincidence that happens year on year, or part of a larger agenda?

I feel like I'm waffling, but it's hard to review a book that I have so much to say about. Yet, I hardly know where to begin. The topic of mass incarceration is so immense, with no apparent end in sight and trying to comprehend a solution makes my brain hurt. It saddens me to think the only foreseeable changes in the system will just make the situation worse. Politicians and media continue to spout about the 'war on drugs' if only when they take a breath from the 'war on terror' that apparently occupies the world right now.

So, I guess if you've read this book, you probably picked it up because, like me, you recognised that something's wrong with the system, but you wanted to learn more. In some ways this isn't telling us anything we don't already know, but it's backing up our concerns with facts and statistics that really bring home how bad things are.

If you're not the sort of person who wants to read this book, because you think the criminal justice system does it's job by keeping offenders off the street, with no racial targeting, then I guess this book is for you too. Though perhaps you won't even read the first page.

It serves well to remember why this book is entitled The New Jim Crow and just how accurate that is. Racism is still prevalent everywhere in the world and the fascist far right movements currently sweeping Europe are just another reminder of how far we still have to progress. Yet there really seems to be no place quite like America when it comes to disparity between races. It's history is quite unique and far too recent to have moved much further forward in it's evolution of racism. In 400 years it's progressed from genocide, to slavery, to the Jim Crow era of segregation, to the mass incarceration of today. It really is that simple a line of progression.

...more

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Jun 01, 2012 Sylvia rated it liked it

This Isn't Simply a Drug Issue or a Black/Brown Thing.

I appreciate the history detailed this book, i.e., slavery to reconstruction to Jim Crow to the 60s. I also came to the text expecting to agree fully with the concept, having seen far too many black men claimed by the prison system and left with virtually no means to contribute to society once released.

I read this book with increasing skepticism, however, because the author cherry-picked facts. Framing this state of affairs as largely the re ...more

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Oct 01, 2012 Karen rated it it was amazing

I've worked in the violence prevention sector for 12 years now, and I've recently started learning about the prison industrial complex. As someone who focuses on systems of oppression, I tend to self-righteously roll my eyes when other white people are "shocked" at blatant cases of discrimination or violence in their community.

So I have to say, while reading this book I WAS SHOCKED. I had no idea how far down the rabbit hole mass incarceration actually went. It has also made me question my assum ...more

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Dec 12, 2014 Larry Bassett rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kindle, social-action, nonfiction, political

I have included gobs of this book in status updates and other quotes so will probably not do my usual inclusion of material from the text within this review. But let me say first that I was immediately captivated by this book and soon adopted the feeling of some other reviewers that everyone should read and take this book to heart. I had the e-book from my local online library source but soon found that I had purchased two hardback copies with the idea of distributing them to people whom I could I have included gobs of this book in status updates and other quotes so will probably not do my usual inclusion of material from the text within this review. But let me say first that I was immediately captivated by this book and soon adopted the feeling of some other reviewers that everyone should read and take this book to heart. I had the e-book from my local online library source but soon found that I had purchased two hardback copies with the idea of distributing them to people whom I could not imagine should miss the chance to read it! I will give one copy to my daughter who is in her last semester at the University of Virginia and seemed familiar with book’s notion that black men are being rounded up left and right by the popular War on Drugs and imprisoned. That she had come to this conclusion in Charlottesville, Virginia, gave me some hope that her academic years had not been for naught.

The title of the book really says it all: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. I am exactly the right audience for this book as the author notes in the Preface:

This book is not for everyone. I have a specific audience in mind— people who care deeply about racial justice but who, for any number of reasons, do not yet appreciate the magnitude of the crisis faced by communities of color as a result of mass incarceration.

In the Foreword, radical Cornel West exhorts us:

Martin Luther King Jr. called for us to be lovestruck with each other, not colorblind toward each other. To be lovestruck is to care, to have deep compassion, and to be concerned for each and every individual, including the poor and vulnerable. The social movement fanned and fueled by this historic book is a democratic awakening that says we do care, that the racial caste system must be dismantled, that we need a revolution in our warped priorities, a transfer of power from oligarchs to the people— and that we are willing to live and die to make it so!

This is a book that exhorts! It takes an idea and gathers enough specifics so that you can run with the idea on your own. You can become an advocate. But you must be prepared to be challenged. You will not be allowed to rest on your good liberal duff. You will want to DO SOMETHING after you read this book. For that, it gets five stars!

Agitate! Educate! Organize!

And here is a great thing: Since you are reading this on Goodreads, you can preview the book right here! Even listen to some of it! So, get to it! ...more

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About Michelle Alexander

Michelle Alexander

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Michelle Alexander is an associate professor of law at The Ohio State University, a civil rights advocate and a writer.

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“The genius of the current caste system, and what most distinguishes it from its predecessors, is that it appears voluntary. People choose to commit crimes, and that's why they are locked up or locked out, we are told. This feature makes the politics of responsibility particularly tempting, as it appears the system can be avoided with good behavior. But herein lies the trap. All people make mistakes. All of us are sinners. All of us are criminals. All of us violate the law at some point in our lives. In fact, if the worst thing you have ever done is speed ten miles over the speed limit on the freeway, you have put yourself and others at more risk of harm than someone smoking marijuana in the privacy of his or her living room. Yet there are people in the United States serving life sentences for first-time drug offenses, something virtually unheard of anywhere else in the world.” — 173 likes

“The nature of the criminal justice system has changed. It is no longer primarily concerned with the prevention and punishment of crime, but rather with the management and control of the dispossessed.” — 90 likes

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