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

by Michelle Alexander

For example, relatively little is said here about the unique experience of women, Latinos, and immigrants in the criminal justice system, though these groups are particularly vulnerable to the worst abuses and suffer in ways that are important and distinct.

These television shows, especially those that romanticize drug-law enforcement, are the modern-day equivalent of the old movies portraying happy slaves, the fictional gloss placed on a brutal system of racialized oppression and control.

Human Rights Watch reported in 2000 that, in seven states, African Americans constitute 80 to 90 percent of all those sent to prison on drug charges.