Book Review: The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
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Continuing on with my list of anti-racist readings, I have a feeling things are going to get more and more intense. Previously, the books I’ve read were introductions and memoirs, laying the foundation and giving personal insight. Today’s read really took things to another level for me.
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, originally published in 2010, is a look at how the War on Drugs and the school to prison pipeline have essentially created an acceptable form of slavery and segregation. The book clearly lays out facts and statistics which, to a thoughtful observer, make it undeniable that people of color, specifically Black men, have been targeted in this “new” system. One of Alexander’s main supporting points as to why this new system was developed to look “race neutral” is because is it’s unacceptable in our modern society to admit to wanting segregation. But this book was written ten years ago, and a few days ago Donald Trump tweeted this:
So clearly, given the events of the past four years, plenty of Americans feel they can be out and proud with their racism. There’s no need to hide it if the president doesn’t right?
The new acceptance of racism, however, doesn’t change the fact that the “justice” system we currently have in place in unequivocally racist. And the ripple effects the system has had on society are innumerable. Honestly, I’m not going to go into too many details about the topics of the book itself, because you need to read it, see it in black and white to feel the full impact. I can’t tell you how many times my jaw just dropped open.
Just to be real clear to any conservatives who might be stumbling on this post (not sure how you landed here, but I hope you take the time to actually read first this post and then this book), every president from Reagan on is mentioned in this book, all of whom have played active roles in the continuation of these policies. Yes, even Obama. So this is not a Republican bashing book, it’s a systemic racism wake up call book.
The only thing I wish this book would have included more of is how we go about making changes to this system, because dismantling a justice system that has been in place for forty years is obviously not going to be easy and is not going to happen overnight. I will be spending some time over the next couple of weeks doing some research on this and trying to figure out where my time and resources can be most effective, and I will of course share this information with you.
One final thing that I would really urge everyone to think about whether you read this book or not. In the 1980’s the War on Drugs claimed to target crack. Politicians and the media painted a violent picture of drugs and crime and spent millions of dollars creating this “war”. Even though crack/cocaine use is spread evenly among all races, Black men and Latino men were the targets of this war. Today we are in the middle of an “Opioid Crisis”. White people are by far more likely to overdose on opiates than other races. So when the offenders are perceived to be people of color, the government starts a war, locking people up for first offenses, labeling them as felons for the rest of their lives. When the offenders are white, it’s a health crisis and millions of dollars are poured into treatment and prevention. It’s not hard to put the pieces together and understand why these two similar drugs have been handled so differently.
Everyone should read this book, thoughtfully, and with an open mind.
