The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration - 1840 Words

In the novel, The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, author and criminal rights lawyer, Michelle Alexander emphasizes her overall thesis as our nation is currently in a state of racism, prejudice, and mass incarceration, and it is ultimately turning back time to the years of Jim Crow. Throughout her novel, she analyzes series of significant civil rights cases that support her thesis, and describe ramifications that these cases had on her thesis. In my critical analysis, I will discuss the importance of Alexanders thesis describe several turning point cases and the ramifications these cases had on her thesis, and give my own argument of why I overall agree with Alexanders novel. First, Michelle Alexander gives†¦show more content†¦Two police officers entered the bus, and work Bostick with a bright green â€Å"raid† jacket and displaying their badges and a gun. At this point, the bus was currently stopped at a brief layover in Fort Lauderdale, the officers were â€Å"working the bus† looking for persons who might be carrying drugs. Officers quickly asked for his identification and if they could search his belongings. Bostick gave the officers their consent, even though he knew he was carrying a pound of cocaine. Bostick was arrested and he was charged and convicted of trafficking cocaine (Alexander 2016). However, the problem with this case is that police had no reasonable suspicious to search Bostock’s belongings. They also failed to mention, that he was free to remain silent or to refuse to answer any of the their questions. These case supports her thesis by, officers stereotyping the African American man as a drug war criminal. They had no reason to suggest, that he had drugs and formally chose to search his belongings based on the color of his skin. Also, no reasonable person in that situation could have felt as if they had the right to say no to their items being searched or remaining silent, since Bo stick was approached with guns and badges he felt intimidated and fearful to follow officers orders. Later on the U.S. Supreme court reversed the outcome of the case, on the grounds that theShow MoreRelatedThe New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration1370 Words   |  6 Pagesunrecognizable ways that fit into the fabric of the American society to render it nearly invisible to the majority of Americans. Michelle Alexander, in her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness shatters this dominantly held belief. The New Jim Crow makes a reader profoundly question whether the high rates of incarceration in the United States is an attempt to maintain blacks as an underclass. Michelle Alexander makes the assertion that â€Å"[w]e have not ended racial caste in America;Read MoreThe New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration1361 Words   |  6 PagesBook Review Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness The premise of the ‘The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness’ by Michelle Alexander, is to refute claims that racism is dead and argue that the War on Drugs and the federal drug policy unfairly targets communities of color, keeping a large majority of black men of varying ages in a cycle of poverty and behind bars. The author proves that racism thrives by highlighting theRead MoreThe New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration1477 Words   |  6 PagesThe New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness, by Michelle Alexander. The New Press, 2010. 290 pages. Reviewed by Ashlei G Cameron. Michelle alexander is a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate and legal scholar. As an associate professor of law at Standford law school, she directed the Civil Rights Clinic and pursued a research agenda focused on the intersection of race and criminal justice. In 2005. Alexander won a Soros Justice Fellowship that supported the writingRead MoreThe New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration1199 Words   |  5 Pagesthose who did read her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In The Age of Colorblindness. Michelle Alexander stated that The most despised in America is not gays, transgenders, nor even illegal immigrants - it is criminals. That was an important quote since the stereotypical criminal in our racially divided America in most cases are those of color also known as blacks. This is why the criminal justice system in the United States promotes the mass incarceration of blacks that can be seen throughRead MoreThe New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration1081 Words   |  5 Page s Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness outlines how the criminal justice system has systematically designed new methods of discriminating against African Americans. The book advocates for racial justice, specifically, for African Americans and contends they [African Americans] were targeted and subsequently incarcerated, by white voters and public officials, through the War on Drugs campaign. President Reagan and his Administration exploited racialRead MoreThe New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration1347 Words   |  6 PagesHunter Silver Dr. Kendall Smith English 103-4120 10 November 2015 High Incarceration Rates Due to Racism Racism effects the the high incarceration rates according to Michelle Alexander, the author of â€Å"The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. This scholar writes about how the civil rights movement has been taken back by the mass incarceration of black Americans in the war on drugs. Alexander also explains how the severe consequences that these black men carry on afterRead MoreThe New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration Essay1797 Words   |  8 PagesJim Crow laws are regarded as part of the racial caste system that operated in the Southern and Border States in the years between 1877 and the mid-1960s. Under the series of the anti-black laws, African Americans were treated as inferior and second class citizens. The laws have been argued to have represented the legitimization of the anti-black racism in the US. The book The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is written by Michelle Alexander and originally published byRead MoreThe New J im Crow : Mass Incarceration Essay1401 Words   |  6 Pages Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, examines mass incarceration in the United States, why the criminal justice system works the way it does towards minorities, the detriments associated with mass incarceration as it relates to offenders, and much more. In the introduction of her book, Alexander immediately paints the harsh reality of mass incarceration with the story of Jarvious Cotton who is denied the right to vote among other rights becauseRead MoreThe New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration Essay1096 Words   |  5 PagesAlexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press, 2010. Study Questions for â€Å"The New Jim Crow†: 1) What is the relationship between the War on Drugs and the spread of crack cocaine through inner city neighborhoods in the 1980s? President Ronald Reagan officially announced the current drug war in 1982, before crack became an issue in the media or a crisis in poor black neighborhoods. A few years after the drug war was declared, crackRead MoreThe New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration1239 Words   |  5 PagesIn 2013, Michelle Alexander published her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, hoping it served as a call to action. Immediately this book received a huge amount of attention because of the controversial topics presented. This book opened a lot of people’s eyes to the term colorblindness, a sociological perspective referring to the disregard of racial characteristics. There is no racial data or profiling, no classifications, and no categorizations or distinctions