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

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

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ISBN13: 9781595581037
ISBN10: 1595581030
Condition: Like New


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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

Once in a great while a book comes along that changes the way we see the world and helps to fuel a nationwide social movement. The New Jim Crow is such a book. Praised by Harvard Law professor Lani Guinier as "brave and bold," this book directly challenges the notion that the presidency of Barack Obama signals a new era of colorblindness. With dazzling candor, legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." By targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control—relegating millions to a permanent second–class status—even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness. In the words of Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, this book is a "call to action."

Called "stunning" by Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David Levering Lewis, "invaluable" by the Daily Kos, "explosive" by Kirkus, and "profoundly necessary" by the Miami Herald, The New Jim Crow is a must–read for all people of conscience.

Review

"Michelle Alexander's brave and bold new book paints a haunting picture in which dreary felon garb, post-prison joblessness, and loss of voting rights now do the stigmatizing work once done by colored-only water fountains and legally segregated schools. With dazzling candor, Alexander argues that we all pay the cost of the new Jim Crow." Lani Guinier, professor at Harvard Law School and author of Lift Every Voice: Turning a Civil Rights Setback into a New Vision of Social Justice and The Miner's Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy

Review

"Explosive debut — alarming, provocative and convincing.” Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Michelle Alexander is an associate professor of law at Ohio State University and holds a joint appointment at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. Formerly the director of the ACLUs Racial Justice Project in Northern California, Alexander served as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun.

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`
Judith Armatta , January 19, 2012
The New Jim Crow is a wake-up call to anyone who cares about racial justice and equality. Alexander uncovers the invisible Jim Crow system of mass incarceration (disproportionately of Black and Latino men) that replaced the old Jim Crow system of segregation. One in three black men aged 20 to 29 are under control of the criminal justice system. They constitute nearly half of the 2 million incarcerated citizens. Another 5 million people are on parole or probation. Alexander argues that "criminals" constitute a permanent underclass, facing lifelong discrimination in jobs, housing, public benefits, education, voting, etc. Alexander writes, "The stigma of criminality functions in much the same way that the stigma of race once did. It justifies a legal, social, and economic boundary between "us" and "them." Once that boundary is created, almost anything is sanctioned against the outcasts. In a call to awareness and action, Alexander reminds us of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s warning that "racial caste systems do not require racial hostility or overt bigotry to thrive. They need only racial indifference." If we don't heed the call we repeat the guilty acquiescence of past generations in slavery and Jim Crow segregation.

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Sandra Miller , January 01, 2012 (view all comments by Sandra Miller)
If you want to believe that the war on drugs is working, if you think that everyone gets a fair deal under the law and you absolutely do not want to hear anything to the contrary, well, don't read this book. If you have a sense that something isn't right with our justice system, the privatization of our prisons, right up to the Supreme Court then get a group together and read this book, discuss what you've read, spread the word, and find out what you can do to stop the mass incarceration of people of color, especially men. Ms. Alexander has done her homework well and writes a compelling review of what is happening across our country, and in your neighborhood. You may not agree with each of her conclusions, but the hard facts alone will frighten you. I'd love to say this is a "good" read, but I can't. It is an important read.

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sheilagriffin44 , June 12, 2011
Without our past our future will never be concord.

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Nancy L , May 29, 2011 (view all comments by Nancy L)
"The New Jim Crow" provides an explanation that absolutely rings true for problems I was aware of (the disproportionate number of African Americans in prison, and harsher sentences for "black" drugs vs. "white" drugs), but lacked an understanding of the underlying causes. The culture and the politics that created the the injustices African-Americans in the U.S. currently face are finely detailed here. Alexander explains clearly how the new racial caste system developed, how it works, and why it works. It is truly eye-opening.

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Sandra Miller , January 01, 2011 (view all comments by Sandra Miller)
Favorite may not be the right word to use for my relationship to this book. Most important book I read this year would be a more apt description. I work with chronically street homeless men and women and read this to get a perspective I didn't have on some of the issues that contribute to their circumstances. What I got was an education about a level of injustice that astounded and disheartened me. I may not agree with all of Michelle Alexander's conclusions, but the indisputable facts she cites will give even the most hardened cynic real pause for thought. Read this book and find out what the Supreme Court has done in your name!

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Carol Van Strum , January 01, 2011
In a well-researched, thoroughly documented volume, Michelle Alexander reveals the blatant, appalling racism of our dysfunctional justice system. This is essential reading for anyone who cares about fairness and equal treatment under the law.

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JYoung17102 , April 03, 2010 (view all comments by JYoung17102)
Michelle Alexander's rigorous and systematic exposure of our criminally unjust system of "justice" belongs at the top of every legislator's reading list and is a must-read volume for all those who would understand this nation. Superb.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9781595581037
Binding:
Hardcover
Publication date:
01/05/2010
Publisher:
PERSEUS DISTRIBUTION
Pages:
290
Height:
9.50
Width:
6.50
Thickness:
1.00
Number of Units:
1
Copyright Year:
2010
UPC Code:
2801595581039
Author:
Michelle Alexander
Subject:
Criminal justice, administration of
Subject:
United States Race relations.
Subject:
Crime-Prisons and Prisoners

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