The new Jim Crow

Alternate Titles

• Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness

Description

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is a 2010 book by Michelle Alexander, a civil rights litigator and legal scholar. The book discusses race-related issues specific to African-American males and mass incarceration in the United States, but Alexander noted that the discrimination faced by African-American males is prevalent among other minorities and socio-economically disadvantaged populations. Alexander's central premise, from which the book derives its title, is that "mass incarceration is, metaphorically, the New Jim Crow". --wikipedia

Description

This work argues that the War on Drugs and policies that deny convicted felons equal access to employment, housing, education, and public benefits create a permanent under caste based largely on race.As the United States celebrates the nation's "triumph over race" with the election of Barack Obama, the majority of young black men in major American cities are locked behind bars or have been labeled felons for life. Although Jim Crow laws have been wiped off the books, an astounding percentage of the African American community remains trapped in a subordinate status - much like their grandparents before them. In this incisive critique, former litigator-turned-legal-scholar Michelle Alexander provocatively argues that we have not ended racial caste in America: we have simply redesigned it. Alexander shows that, by targeting black men and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control, even as it formally adheres to the principle of color blindness. The New Jim Crow challenges the civil rights community - and all of us - to place mass incarceration at the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in America.

Subjects

Other Editions

• The new Jim Crow: mass incarceration in the age of colorblindnesspaperbackNew Press2012-01-01
• A Nova Segregacao Racismo e Encarceramento em MassapaperbackBoitempo2000-08-26
• The New Jim CrowRandom2010-01-01
• The New Jim CrowDistributed by Perseus Distribution2010-01-01
• The new Jim CrowhardcoverNew Press2012-01-01
• The New Jim CrowpaperbackThe New Press2012-01-01