The New Jim Crow
question
JAN/FEB - The New Jim Crow
SURJ
Jan 02, 2018 06:10AM
Welcome to our first book discussion! This is a new process, so we can tweak it as we find what works. To maintain flexibility, read the book at your own pace, and come back to our discussion board to pose questions and respond to others as you make your way through the book.
To just start us off, here are some potential discussion questions that may help prompt you in your comments, but feel free to discuss whatever you want! I will be reading the book alongside all of you, so these are just questions that I've found online:
Intro & Chapter 1 Questions:
1. What reasons would you have for deciding that the increase in the rate of incarceration reflects the racism in US society?
2. What strategies have wealthier whites used to divide poor whites from African Americans in the past and in the present?
Chapters 2 & 3 Questions:
3. Compare the “Old Jim Crow” system to the “New Jim Crow” system. What similarities? What differences? Purposes? Methods?
4. What do we feel is a reasonable response to those in possession of drugs currently defined as illegal? To those currently selling drugs that are currently defined as illegal?
Chapters 4 & 5 Questions:
5. What are the similarities and differences between the “old” and “new” Jim Crow? What differences would be important to take into account when organizing a movement?
6. Alexander summarizes the social meaning of slavery as exploitation, Jim Crow as subordination and Mass Incarceration as marginalization. Does this seem to be an accurate summary and if so, how can marginalization be addressed?
7. How might the social silence around incarceration affect a movement for change? What factors does Alexander feel have caused Americans to deny the fact of mass incarceration of people of color? In what ways might a movement for change want to address them?
Chapter 6 Questions:
8. Why does Alexander believe that when building a movement the focus should shift from Civil Rights to Human Rights?
9. What kinds of strategies can be effective in including all, especially poor whites?
10. What prevents justice from being administered equally and fairly in the United States?
11. How do we engage people in promoting change whose interests are not so immediately involved in dismantling the system of mass incarceration?
To just start us off, here are some potential discussion questions that may help prompt you in your comments, but feel free to discuss whatever you want! I will be reading the book alongside all of you, so these are just questions that I've found online:
Intro & Chapter 1 Questions:
1. What reasons would you have for deciding that the increase in the rate of incarceration reflects the racism in US society?
2. What strategies have wealthier whites used to divide poor whites from African Americans in the past and in the present?
Chapters 2 & 3 Questions:
3. Compare the “Old Jim Crow” system to the “New Jim Crow” system. What similarities? What differences? Purposes? Methods?
4. What do we feel is a reasonable response to those in possession of drugs currently defined as illegal? To those currently selling drugs that are currently defined as illegal?
Chapters 4 & 5 Questions:
5. What are the similarities and differences between the “old” and “new” Jim Crow? What differences would be important to take into account when organizing a movement?
6. Alexander summarizes the social meaning of slavery as exploitation, Jim Crow as subordination and Mass Incarceration as marginalization. Does this seem to be an accurate summary and if so, how can marginalization be addressed?
7. How might the social silence around incarceration affect a movement for change? What factors does Alexander feel have caused Americans to deny the fact of mass incarceration of people of color? In what ways might a movement for change want to address them?
Chapter 6 Questions:
8. Why does Alexander believe that when building a movement the focus should shift from Civil Rights to Human Rights?
9. What kinds of strategies can be effective in including all, especially poor whites?
10. What prevents justice from being administered equally and fairly in the United States?
11. How do we engage people in promoting change whose interests are not so immediately involved in dismantling the system of mass incarceration?
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