From the Bookshelf of Diversity in All Forms!…

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

Michelle Alexander

Start date: August 1, 2018

Finish date: August 30, 2018

Discussion: Monthly Group Reads

Why we're reading this: We are covering race/ethnicity in August

The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness …more
[close] We are covering race/ethnicity in August

The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

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What Members Thought

Aug 23, 2019 Cam rated it liked it

Hmmmmmm...... I totally agree with what the author is saying. There are injustices done to people of color in the justice system they go unanswered. Two people of the same nationality can be charged with the same crime and have different sentences. There is proof of that everywhere. The number of minorities don’t equal to the population at large. But nothing is being done about it. I wish this book had solutions to the problems instead of just numbers and facts. Instead of talking about it let’s ...more

17 likes · Like · see review

Sep 24, 2017 Kris rated it it was amazing

Shelves: five-star-books, owned-books

One of the most important, eye-opening, perspective shifting books I have ever read. I could reiterate the appalling statistics and restate the shocking numbers, but Alexander does that far better than I ever could. I was alternatively overwhelmed and frustrated and moved and motivated while reading this. America has a problem. Systemic racism is real. Mass incarceration is yet another institutionalized system put in place to control and oppress people of color. If you doubt this, you need to re ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Jun 23, 2018 Tippy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2018, politics, drugs, culture, history, race

Michelle Alexander puts forth a wonderful, concise argument for her premise, which is clearly understood from the title, that mass incarceration is a new racial caste system, a system of racial control. It's brilliant. She then makes comparisons to Jim Crow and even slavery, explaining similarities and differences that will make approaching this problem different from how we have in the past. The comparison to Jim Crow is not to make the argument shocking, but to be instructive, which I apprecia ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Dec 01, 2014 Karen Michele Burns rated it really liked it

Shelves: social-justice-read

The New Jim Crow is a difficult book for me to review and so I’m going to go at it a bit differently than I would the usual review.
Primary Personal Response:
I have experienced the devastation of the system when trying to enter mainstream society after legal difficulties by helping a young man I taught who was homeless. He was never in trouble for a drug crime (but could have been), but had a felony from his middle school years on his record for a fight in which rocks were thrown, his did some d The New Jim Crow is a difficult book for me to review and so I’m going to go at it a bit differently than I would the usual review.
Primary Personal Response:
I have experienced the devastation of the system when trying to enter mainstream society after legal difficulties by helping a young man I taught who was homeless. He was never in trouble for a drug crime (but could have been), but had a felony from his middle school years on his record for a fight in which rocks were thrown, his did some damage, and he went to detention and then foster care. He was abandoned by his family and homeless when I met him, trying to finish high school and turn his life around. In the process of trying to get him into public housing the manager looked at me and said, “but he’s a felon”. He ended up getting into that housing, but it certainly brought home the problems of that label even though time was served and he was only 13 when the incident occurred and pled guilty in court because he did throw the rock and he had no idea what else to do. The problem of returning to society after serving time and the severity of the punishment for recreational drug use making it a felony spoke the loudest to me as I was reading this book. This young man is white, but the community is high income and he stuck out and was an outcast, scapegoat and symbol of that small conservative culture’s rejection of those who are different.
Race in History Response:
As a high school librarian, I recently supported a series of lectures put on by our local public library through a grant, so had learned a lot more about reconstruction, Jim Crow and the economy of slavery over the last year. I had not thought of the War on Drugs as a New Jim Crow, but found Michelle Alexander’s arguments persuasive. Since I saw it as a persuasive piece and so expected the research to support her views, but I am also interested in looking at other research myself. The book was written in 2009 and seemed almost to predict some of the recent deaths that have brought about protests about profiling by the police and exemption from prosecution for those officers. I chose this book primarily to find out more about the justice system regarding race in light of these events and it was a good choice. I am convinced there are still problems regarding race in our country whether or not I am convinced of all of the facts leading to that problem.
The Writing:
I just retired from high school librarianship, so even though I am not a big reader of non fiction texts, I enjoy researching and I think there may be more to dig through before I will be convinced of some of Alexander’s claims, but the book did a good job leading me in that direction. I felt that some of the writing was repetitive and rambling. There were places where I felt Alexander’s reasoning was a bit of a stretch, but overall it was a satisfying and eye-opening book.
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