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

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.
...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 23, 2014 Shaina rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfic, history

Discusses issues I care a lot about and has given me a much more factual basis for caring about them—the sections about Supreme Court cases, the law and police practices were particularly informative.

However, I'm glad that I read James Forman Jr.'s critique of the New Jim Crow phenomenon before diving in. It allowed me to absorb Alexander's points with a critical eye and walk away feeling more knowledgeable (rather than dazzled) about a nuanced problem.

Definitely worth reading, particularly fo ...more

1 like · Like · see review