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

by Michelle Alexander

Consider also the lengthy to-do list for reformers. If we become serious about dismantling the system of mass incarceration, we must end the War on Drugs. There is no way around it. The drug war helped to birth this system of mass incarceration and create a vast, new under-caste. There is no path to liberation for communities of color that includes this ongoing war. Ending the drug war is no simple task, however. It cannot be accomplished through a landmark court decision, an executive order, or single stroke of the presidential pen. Since 1982, the war has raged like a forest fire set with a few matches and a gallon of gasoline. What began as an audacious federal program has spread to every state in the nation and nearly every city. It has infected law enforcement activities on roads, sidewalks, highways, train stations, airports, and the nation’s border. The war has effectively shredded portions of the U.S. Constitution—eliminating Fourth Amendment protections once deemed inviolate—and it has militarized policing practices in inner cities across America. Racially targeted drug-law enforcement practices taken together with laws that specifically discriminate against people with drug convictions in employment, housing, and public benefits have relegated the majority of black men in urban areas across the United States to a permanent second-class status. If we hope to end this system of control, we cannot be satisfied with a handful of reforms. All of the financial incentiv...