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

Michelle Alexander

Discussion: 2012-Apr-May-Jun

Why we're reading this: May 8, 2012
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2012-Apr-May-Jun

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* June 2012
By Tiffany , WristStrong · 1 post · 20 views

last updated Jun 29, 2012 05:58PM

* May 2012
By Tiffany , WristStrong · 1 post · 22 views

last updated Jun 04, 2012 10:06PM

What Members Thought

Feb 08, 2016 Andy rated it it was amazing

The topic is very important and Alexander's book is so well written that the logic just flows and is very convincing. There may be some holes in her story, but overall it's hard to deny the main point that we have mass incarceration, which unfairly and disproportionately affects non-white people and amounts to life-long disenfranchisement.
I was recently at an event with a speaker from Black Lives Matter. He asked everyone in the room to raise their hands if they had a friend or family member in ...more

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Apr 23, 2013 Liz Murray rated it it was amazing

I feel I can't emphasize the importance of this book enough. Those in power probably feel they've hit the jackpot by creating a 'war on drugs' that locks up black men in extraordinary numbers but because they've been classified a 'criminal' it isn't as easy to garner public support for these men as it would be if someone had a clean sheet. I have a feeling what Michelle Alexander is saying isn't news for too many families and communities in the country but I wasn't aware of the extent of the per I feel I can't emphasize the importance of this book enough. Those in power probably feel they've hit the jackpot by creating a 'war on drugs' that locks up black men in extraordinary numbers but because they've been classified a 'criminal' it isn't as easy to garner public support for these men as it would be if someone had a clean sheet. I have a feeling what Michelle Alexander is saying isn't news for too many families and communities in the country but I wasn't aware of the extent of the persecution until reading this. Alexander writes clearly and while she doesn't pretend to have a solution she reminds us that this is a continuation of the civil rights struggles of the 60's and that 'colorblindness' has only made it easier to repress minority groups deemed a threat to the powers that be. The prison industrial complex goes so deep it would be almost impossible to break it all together. Big money is involved with prisons, with the 'war on drugs' and to break the funding would be near impossible. At the risk of sounding naive: knowledge is power and books like these may bring these issues into the mainstream and may break up some of the myths surrounding mass incarceration.
I'm thirty pages from the end but I was inspired to write the following in response to a Facebook thread concerning school closures:
"I'm reading The New Jim Crow and it follows more or less the same thread. Under the guise of 'colorblindness' black men are being locked up in extraordinary numbers and are often crippled when they get out of prison. I was aware of racial profiling and I know how racist the system is but I didn't see it the way I do now after reading Michelle Alexander's book. Black men are viewed as criminals even when there is no crime involved and the media perpetuates the myth. With 'felons' there is little place for empathy even though they're locked up for crimes that would be brushed off if a white guy did the same. School closings and disruptions of community life in marginalized communities is part of the same deadly charade. While poor white communities are also affected, but I don't think to the same degree, Michelle Alexander points out that while not getting poor whites out of poverty those in power have made sure they have it a little better than black and brown people so they can feel superior in a very small way and their racism remains unchallenged. The dominant rich white male culture is then left unchallenged." ...more

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Jan 10, 2014 Jack rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, politics, history

This book was most interesting. Far more interesting than I thought it would be at first. It's a bit hard for me to give one rating for the whole book. It's in areas absolutely amazingly interesting, and in the beginning a bit less so, with the book ending in excessive repetition and a shaky recommendation for resolution of serious problem Alexander clearly explains and thoroughly supports. So the middle of the book is a FIVE STAR tour de force, with the beginning and ending more the three star, ...more

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Jul 17, 2020 Linda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020, audio, ohio-e-book-project, history, politics, sociology

This book tells me things I knew, such as that Black people tend to receive longer sentences than Whites. It told me things I didn't know about the "war on drugs" that has had profound adverse affects on primarily people of color.
This was the 10th anniversary edition of the book with a very long addition to the beginning of the book.
Well worth the read/listen. ...more

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