This has to be one of the finest polemics I have ever read on the relationship between race and society.

One cannot close this book without the uneasy feeling that not only are black males less free than they were four decades ago but that it is intentional, that the American system is intentionally working against them.

Prior to Richard Nixon's announcement of a "War on Drugs" on June 18, 1971, young back males were in America free-ish. In the intervening fifty or so years American society has turned its back on the civil rights victories of the 1960's to build a new era of mass incarceration and mass surveillance.

Today thousands of black youth languish behind bars for convictions of minor drug charges that would cause a political crisis if the laws were applied equally to black and white youth. When those same men leave prison, there is an equally barbaric code to keep them subservient to the state and forever branded as undesirables.

When this book was first published in 2010 some 65 million Americans had criminal records including tens of millions who were arrested but not convicted of crimes but were excluded from public housing. Overwhelmingly, the majority of them were blacks and brown-skinned men.

The justice system is so overwhelmed by the numbers that it is slanted toward plea bargaining youth out of the courts where they then enter a nightmare from which they do not awake.

"Entering a plea condemns a man to a form of civic death in America" and reverses the promise of the 14th Amendment which promises all citizens due process and equal protection under the laws. In point of practice, the War on Drugs ensures that blacks will suffer the most grievously.

And if the accused enter American jails as poor, indigent, and often homeless individuals, they will sure as shooting come out equally poor.

The story of Florida is most telling, where jail book-in fees, jail per-diem fees, public defender application fees, pre-sentence report fees, public defenders re-coupment fees, residential and work-release program fees, parole and probation supervision fees, late fees, and payment program fees permanently attach to jailbirds.

70% of offenders and ex-offenders are high school dropouts and functionally illiterate. They don't qualify even if most employers would hire them, which they won't. Even if they are hired, up to 65% of their wages can be withheld from them for child support (which accumulates while they are in jail), and up to 35% for court related fees.

And if they don't pay they can go back to prison.

The system of mass incarceration in America is a success, but not at deterring crime. It succeeds at controlling and subsuming black America in a New Jim Crow era. ( )

Every bit as compelling and important as you have heard. You should read it, and so should jurists and legislators everywhere.

There are many excellent books about racism and social justice and I've read quite a few. But I think this is the one I'd put at the top of my required reading list. ( )

ANOTHER MANDATORY READ

The New Jim Crow was without a doubt, one of the most powerful yet disturbing things I've ever read. Stating that something is a "must read" sounds cliche, but this is in fact, a book every American should read. Read it ! ( )

pick up on page 22

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander was first published in 2010 and called attention to the impact the War of Drugs had on communities of color. In her preface to the 10th anniversary edition, Alexander discusses what a new version of the book would cover: the hopefulness of prison reform, the complicated legacy of Barack Obama related to incarceration, the horrific legacy of Donald Trump who gave voice to white supremacy.

But she resisted the urge to write an updated book and I agree with the decision. Things have changed since 2010 but as long as police have almost unlimited power to stop and search and prosecutors can keep people of color off juries for silly and superstitious reasons, our system is broken.

I think the biggest change in this edition is that Alexander expresses some hope for change in her preface. Alexander presents a meticulously researched historical timeline that shows how we moved from slavery to Jim Crow to mass incarceration as answers to segregation and racism. The latter is seemingly so entrenched legally, politically, culturally and economically that Alexander doesn't offer much hope for reversing it in her first edition. She is particularly hard on Civil Rights lawyers and activists who seem to ignore the issue because it often deals with people who did break the law and that makes it harder to defend them.

If you are interested in learning more about mass incarceration and how your state measures up, the Prison Policy Initiative is a good starting point. ( )

Very good and very compelling argument. The writing is good, but she does repeat herself often and it feels a bit like it was a very good research paper that got stretched into a book. Still, recommended, especially in conjunction with the NY Times 1619 project. ( )

Alexander turns the "war on drugs" on its head and shows it for what it truly does. It's not about crime, its about race and keeping as many black and brown people as possible marginalized. This is an important book that everyone concerned about crime should read. ( )

If you have not read this you do not understand the society we live in. ( )

If you have not read this you do not understand the society we live in. ( )

lots to take away from this book! i think it's a book that'll reread at least one more time, if not multiple times. this book was written over 10 years ago but, we, the United States, still have a justice system that perpetuates racial hierarchy in the United States, and we need stimulating conversations begin to impact change. the US has never owned up to its horrible racist past. a large part of the point of this book is to show that ‘color blind’ visions of US race relations today is the largest problem facing people of color. from slavery to Jim Crow, to the criminalization of black people.. the US hasn't learned anything from its past! actually, it really seems like the US doesn't want to learn from its past. slavery is still going strong today, but this time it's hidden in plain sight.. well maybe not so hidden. the US doesn't have a justice system, it's unjust and cruel. america hates black people and that's the truth. the industrial prison complex is just a new form of slavery and the over policing of black people is sickening. america needs to be better and it can't be better unless enough people care about other people

great read. very informative. and makes me want to punch some politicians in the face ( )

Summer 2020 (May? June?);

It's been too long to do this review proper justice (though all the reviews today have been so light and scant as I try to catch up like twenty or thirty of them and get myself when I can start doing them weekly/biweekly again), but this book was incredibly stark, harrowing, and educational. There was so much I did not know about our legal system at all before reading this book, about the grey spaces, and the deviousness of cultural traps that I only barely new about facing the black community, and especially black boys/men.

I think everyone (especially every educator) should read this book. ( )

Wow, this was really eye-opening. I thought Michelle Alexander made a strong case, and I learned a lot. Although the authors were motivated by different societal problems, I think this book goes hand in hand with Chasing the Scream, by Johann Hari, for its persuasive arguments against the war on drugs.
I feel similar to how I felt when I finished Lost Connections, also by Hari, which is to say, overwhelmed by the enormity of the problem. In both books, the authors assert that major societal overhauls are the only way these problems can be truly addressed. It’s just so big, and it leaves me at a loss to know what I can do as an individual that can possibly help. It’s disheartening that both major political parties have just made things worse as they compete to show they’re tougher in crime than their rivals.
This is a book that everyone should read, and I hope the extra attention it’s gotten this year shines a light on something people may not want to think about, and that it builds empathy for a group of people who are widely judged and written off as deserving of their lot. ( )

Extraordinary book that educated the white European that I am more than ever, not limited to the horrendous injustices the book denounces.
Well written and full of qualified references, this book is a masterpiece telling the truth. ( )

Extraordinary book that educated the white European that I am more than ever, not limited to the horrendous injustices the book denounces.
Well written and full of qualified references, this book is a masterpiece telling the truth. ( )

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
Michelle Alexander (born October 7, 1967) is an American writer and civil rights activist.
She is best known for her 2010 book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.
Since 2018, she has been an opinion columnist for The New York Times.ncarceration is, metaphorically, the New Jim Crow"

Heartbreaking. Powerful. Inspiring. A life changing book everyone in America, in my opinion, should be required to read. It's message is well researched and cited, fair, and clear. Moving. ( )

I have recommended this book since it's release. But getting anyone to read can be difficult. This book confirmed so much, about America that for many others had been previously hidden from their worldview. I had been calling out similiar bias as I had witnessed it over the years. Usually with little success. So it was very satisfying to read and learn from this book, and I recommend it to all. I have told my republican friends for decades that if they support any politicians or laws that discriminate on race sex religion, they might very well be racist. Racism doesn't need a white robe and hood anymore. Read this now classic book, and read "Chokehold" afterwards. ( )

This is an incredibly dense and important work. If you want to understand how a nominally colorblind criminal justice system leads to racially biased mass incarceration of Black and Latino men, you should read this. Published in 2012, it continues to be relevant. Some of the examples are starting to show their age, but the core system it describes is still in place.

The New Jim Crow is a system of racial control meant to marginalize Blacks. It was built to replace Jim Crow laws, just as that caste system was built to replace slavery. Each of these caste systems has responded to the downfall of the system before it. The New Jim Crow, in particular, has to hide racial bias behind the veil of a colorblind system.

The motivation for a racially motivated system of control is to create a wedge between poor Blacks and poor Whites so that they do not form a coalition against the more affluent. By pushing down Blacks, Whites avoid being at the bottom of America's social hierarchy.

The tool used to replace segregation was calls for law and order. Civil rights activists were portrayed as wanting to disturb the peace. The primary tool of the New Jim Crow is mass incarceration built on top of the War on Drugs. From the start, the War on Drugs included an intentional effort to associate Blackness with drugs and criminality. This is despite the fact that Whites use and sell drugs at rates comparable to Blacks.

How does a nominal colorblind criminal justice system act as a tool of racial control? At every step of the process, bias is allowed into the system. Law enforcement officers have large amounts of discretion. They have financial incentives to increase drug arrests. Because of the systematic racialization of drug criminals as Black, society tends to ignore civil rights violations in Black communities. Put all of these together, to disproportionate enforcement of drug laws in Black community.

Second, the courts have systematically worked to ensure that only clear evidence of individually targeted racism is considered valid grounds for racial discrimination. Statistical patterns, no matter how widespread or well supported, are not considered valid evidence. Support for such discriminatory outcomes have been justified, in part, by the observation that while there is evidence for biased outcomes, questioning the colorblindness of the criminal justice system would lead to it falling apart.

Finally, convicted criminals are subject to legal discrimination in housing, employment, education, public benefits, and voting. This creates a permanent undercaste which is unable to integrate back into the mainstream economic system.

The critical thing to note about this process is that it does not depend on explicit racism. Racially biased outcomes are the result of how the system as a whole fits together.

Because of this, removing the racial bias in the criminal justice system requires more than incremental fixes. Changes are required across the whole system. Furthermore, for those changes to have lasting effect we must acknowledge the role of race in the current system. If not, the current caste system will just be replaced by another.

Successfully dismantling racial caste systems will require a broad coalition. This cannot be limited to just groups who have traditionally been discriminated against. Even though it may raise legitimate anger, we must bring White men into the coalition and find a way to build a system that works for everyone. Race has been used as a racial wedge in the past. We cannot let it continue to be used as one. ( )

An amazing read! The author takes a very complicated subject and explains it in a very clear and concise way without bombarding you with too many dates and facts. I would highly recommend. ( )

Whew.... What can I say about this book. Very well written. Great use of sources. Very informative. Gave me lots of good background and info. So much so, I'll have to resist the urge to become a pedant, lol.

This was a great book and helped fill in some knowledge of the holes of our american society in a way... it's good to see where the momentum and inertia of the "criminal" justice system and it's work to keep certain groups of people down.

It's a shame. This book or a streamlined version of it, should be required reading for everyone. Even if a lot of them will choose to ignore it. ( )

Wow. Just wow. Mind blowing, sad, maddening, important. Hard to listen, intense, wrong. I need a follow-up, shot through with hope. ( )

OMGosh. What a disturbing book but everyone should read it. It made me look at things very differently. Our justice system is so messed up and is especially biased against poor and even more so poor black people. We have got to change things in this country. We are supposed to all be equal. If you can read this and not see injustice, there is a problem with you. ( )

Narrated by Karen Pittman and Amanda Cobb. ( )