mass incarceration

War on Drugs

nationality

American

race / ethnicity

African American

university professor

The Ohio State University

innovator in the field of

American studies

occupation / innovator as

human rights activist

university teacher

lawyer

Race in the United States criminal justice system

is a new form of social control, serving the same function as slaver and, later, jim crow laws.

Alexander argues that mass incarceration is a new form of social control, serving the same function as slaver and, later, Jim Crow laws.

is metaphorically, the new jim crow. It is a new racial caste system.

. . . mass incarceration is, metaphorically, the New Jim Crow and that all those who care about social justice should fully commit themselves to dismantling this new racial caste system.

is a tool for enforcing new modes of discrimination and repression and for wreaking devastation upon african American communities.

Alexander argues that the War on Drugs has had a devastating impact on inner city African American communities, on a scale entirely out of proportion to the actual dimensions of criminal activity taking place within these communities. During the past three decades, the US prison population has exploded from 300,000 to more than two million, with the majority of the increase due to drug convictions.[8] This has led to the US having the world's highest incarceration rate. The US incarceration rate is eight times that of Germany, a comparatively developed large democracy.[9] Alexander claims that the US is unparalleled in the world in focusing enforcement of federal drug laws on racial and ethnic minorities. In the capital city of Washington, D.C. three out of four young African American males are expected to serve time in prison.[10] While studies show that quantitatively Americans of different races consume illegal drugs at similar rates,[11][verification needed] in some states black men have been sent to prison on drug charges at rates twenty to fifty times those of white men.[12] The proportion of African American men with some sort of criminal record approaches 80% in some major US cities, and they become marginalized, part of what Alexander calls 'a growing and permanent undercaste.'[13][14] (wikipedia),

Michelle Alexander

Authors(0)

Michelle AlexanderThinkers

Michelle Alexander