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

by Michelle Alexander

Every system of injustice depends on the silence, paralysis, confusion, and cooperation of those it seeks to eliminate or control.

If history has taught us anything by now, it is that the politics of white supremacy will never redound to our benefit in the long run, and those who profit from the suffering of others will never hesitate to profit from our suffering when the opportunity arises.

Similarly, key provisions in the Patriot Act, which allowed the government to search homes without notifying their owners or residents and which were advertised as necessary to root out Muslim terrorists following 9/11, wound up being used primarily in drug law enforcement—not terrorism investigations.

The future of our democracy may depend on other racial and ethnic groups learning to see that our fates are, in fact, inescapably intertwined.

a transfer of power from oligarchs to the people—and that we are willing to live and die to make it so!