The New Jim Crow

Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

by Michelle Alexander, Michelle Alexander

Hardcover, 352 pages

English language

Published Jan. 30, 2010 by New Press.

ISBN:: 978-1-59558-103-7
OCLC Number:: 320803432

(8 reviews)

As the United States celebrates the nation's "triumph over race" with the election of Barack Obama, the majority of young black men in major American cities are locked behind bars or have been labeled felons for life. Although Jim Crow laws have been wiped off the books, an astounding percentage of the African American community remains trapped in a subordinate status -- much like their grandparents before them.

In this incisive critique, former litigator-turned-legal-scholar Michelle Alexander provocatively argues that we have not ended racial caste in America: we have simply redesigned it. Alexander shows that, by targeting black men and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control, even as it formally adheres to the principle of color blindness. The New Jim Crow challenges the civil rights community -- and all of us -- to place mass incarceration at the forefront …

9 editions

lukethelibrarian reviewed The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

2022 #FReadom read 20/20

5 stars

At the beginning of 2022, I set a goal to read at least 20 books this year that had been banned or threatened in Texas libraries or schools. My 20th book in that #FReadom journey was the 10th Anniversary edition of The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. newjimcrow.com/

After finishing Alexander's profound work, I went back and reread her updated preface to the new edition, in which she captures the urgency of how the business of mass incarceration has evolved through privatized "e-carceration" and immigration detention.

Then I came across this deep dive by @aaronlmorrison published last month by AP, with personal stories of the impact of the drug war & mass incarceration. But I needed the context of Alexander's book to truly understand the massive scale of the whole story. apnews.com/article/war-on-drugs-75e61c224de3a394235df80de7d70b70

debby_joyblue reviewed The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

Review of 'The New Jim Crow' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I was really looking forward to reading this. The content is so wildly important. Systemic racism in the USA is real, and it has far-reaching consequences.

The writing left a lot to be desired. The author was incredibly repetitive, both in terms of topics, stats, and wording. Passages were repeated so often that I really wondered if I had lost my place and gone backward (several times). Better editing would have changed my rating markedly.

Acton reviewed The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

Review of 'The New Jim Crow' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Since this book first came out a decade ago, it's important to read the preface and the forward for the updates.

The author's thesis is that "The system of mass incarceration created a legal framework by which the rights and benefits of citizenship are routinely stripped away from millions of U.S. citizens labeled "criminals" and "felons" until they mirror...those of non-citizen immigrants within the United States."

It seems obvious to me that that is exactly what has happened, though I'm not sure that I'm convinced that there was a master plan for this. The fact is, it happened, it's happening, and it will take major change to put an end to this horrible crisis.

Alexander gives us a history lesson, a tour of the outrageously discriminatory laws of the past, and argues that each time one of these was overturned, powerful whites found a new way of discriminating against African Americans. She outlines the laws that boxed people of color into poor neighborhoods and ghettos, and how police, seeking funding from the federal government, kept their arrests high during The War on Drugs. The easiest way to do this was to turn these poor neighborhoods into occupied territories. She points out that the "colorblind" laws are simply a new way of not talking about race, rendering the issue invisible.

Alexander is highly critical of many politicians, and not just republicans. She is critical of both former presidents Clinton and Obama for adding on to the problem. (I will admit that it's hard for me to read criticism of Obama. It's not my most objective quality.)

Overall, I found Michelle Alexander's book to be highly informative and eye-opening. The one criticism I have is the amount of repetition.

I'm very glad to have read this! Right now, I am concerned that too many people do not understand what is really meant by defunding the police.