I have recently started reading the book, "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander. The book provides an in-depth look at today's legal system, how it came to be, and how it affects us today. The book tells the reader about the history of discrimination in America, beginning with slavery, to Jim Crow, to the disproportionate mass incarceration happening in America today. Although I have only just started the book it is beginning to open my eyes to flaws in our legal system that stem from all the way back before even the Jim Crow laws. Michelle Alexander's writing is very academic and contains countless facts, statistics, and examples to back up her points. I've enjoyed reading it so far as it is super informative and eye-opening. It is also very relevant to the activist movements going on right now. It definitely is a slow read because it is very dense and has lots of information but other than that it is great.
Michelle Alexander argues that today's legal system is a racist institution designed to legally discriminate against minorities, especially African Americans, and create a new racial caste system. As the title of the book implies, Alexander believes that today's legal system is similar to the Jim Crow laws that were in place in the 1900s. Although they are clearly not the same, she states, "We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it."(p2) She means that, despite many people's beliefs, racism and discrimination in America have not been vanquished and in fact is still an issue all the way up to our federal government.
Alexander begins by talking about how just a year before writing the book, she would've completely disagreed with her argument now. "Never did I seriously consider the possibility that a new racial caste system was operating in this country."(p3) However, as she did more and more research it became clearer and clearer to her that this discriminating system was very real. So real that she began to wonder how she couldn't see it before. An important aspect of this came from looking at historical patterns regarding race and racial issues. It is important to see how after every racial equality victory, there is always another pushback from people wanting to continue the racial caste system. When slavery was abolished, African Americans were treated well for a short period of time before the beneficiaries of slavery imposed Black Codes. When Black Codes were abolished and reconstruction began, Jim Crow laws were introduced. After Jim Crow laws were ended, the War on Drugs came to be.
War on Drugs. The War on Drugs is a program started by Richard Nixon in 1971 in response to the national increase in drug use, especially crack cocaine. The crack had swept the nation and especially The wave of use had peaked years earlier and drug use was, in fact, in a steep decline in the USA. Despite this, Richard Nixon felt it was necessary to start an intensive anti-drug program that would go on to destroy hundreds of thousands of lives. Nixon officially stated that drug abuse was"Public enemy #1", which in no way reflected the views of American citizens. In fact, less than 2% of Americans thought drug abuse was the biggest issue facing America. Alexander claims that Nixon did this not to help drug abusers but to create a system where he and others could legally continue the racial caste system and discriminate. How? Well, our judiciary system is designed to allow legal discrimination against criminal convicts. That means a convict can be denied many basic needs such as voting, getting a job. Therefore, as Nixon presented a program that would disproportionately put blacks in jail for undeserving crimes, he created a system that allowed for legal discrimination. The war on drugs pumped millions of dollars into drug programs and drug policing, especially policing in inner-city black neighborhoods. These inner-city neighborhoods had been devastated by the combination of the crack use increase and an economic collapse and the policing programs that the War on Drugs endorsed pushed these neighborhoods over the edge. Mass incarceration in black neighborhoods began and thousands were arrested, the majority for minor drug misdemeanors. Additionally, the War on Drugs began to create stereotypes and labels in the media for black neighborhoods calling them "hoods" and their residents as "crack whores" or "crack babies". This combined with the arrests and economic downturn was devastating to black communities. In 1970, 70% of black people in America were working blue-collar jobs. By 1987, at the peak of the War on Drugs, that number dropped all the way down to 28%. The War on Drugs is an ongoing program that has allowed jailing and legal discrimination against millions. Michelle talks about how studies show that 1 in 4 black men end up in jail at some point in their life and this is an intentional effect of the mass incarceration.
Works Cited
Breaking Good - How to End the War on Drugs. The New School, 28 Nov. 2018, events.newschool.edu/event/breaking_good_-_how_to_end_the_war_on_drugs. Accessed 4 Mar. 2021.
Carroll, Rebecca. Why Michelle Alexander Is More Important Than Ever. Shondaland, Hearst, 12 Jan. 2018, www.shondaland.com/inspire/books/a15065394/michelle-alexander-new-jim-crow/. Accessed 4 Mar. 2021.
War on Drugs. History, Maven, 31 May 2017, www.history.com/topics/crime/the-war-on-drugs. Accessed 4 Mar. 2021.
A good overview of the book so far. It might be helpful to break paragraph into smaller chunks for ease of reading. What are your thoughts about the impact of the War on Drugs and its intent?
ReplyDeleteI will try to keep the paragraphs shorter next time. I am still learning about the War on Drugs but it seems pretty clear that there was at least some racially discriminatory motive behind it. I'm sure the book will continue to convince me of this.
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