The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander - Book Report/Review Example

09 May The New Jim Crow: In her highly inspiring book “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”, Michelle Alexander rigorously strives to unveil racial discrimination against the black middle class in the US. She compares the treatment received by African Americans from middle class to slavery claiming that the number of blacks put behind bars today by the elitist law enforcement system far exceeds the number of black slaves there used to be before slavery was abolished by Abraham Lincoln from America. An important thing worth mentioning here is that Alexander not only shoots arrows in thin air, but presents logical arguments in her book to reinforce the legitimacy of her claims. It is emphasized that the issue of racial discrimination still exists and should be properly addressed by the government. Basically, this essay seeks to analyse the quality of Alexander’s moral appeals to appreciate the extent to which her claims could be held true. Possible opposition to her reasoning and viewpoints will also be explored in following discussion. The point of this essay is to prove Alexander’s idea that the official approach taken by the US government to war on drugs has badly damaged black America. It would not be an overstatement if said that Alexander’s book has delivered immense value to past literature related to mass incarceration of African Americans. It introduces new ways to make naïve readers understand how the law enforcement system controlled by white elitists works to make black class more disadvantaged than it already is. This is because once a black man is convicted of crime on logical or illogical ground, he remains in control of the criminal justice system even after release. This control translated into getting ripped off of many citizenship rights. This war on drugs is less of an initiative against crime and more a vehicle to generate extraordinary numbers of black convicts. Alexander stresses that it is the “drug forfeiture laws and federal grant programs” (Critical Thinker) which motivates the police to punish black men in context of racial discrimination. Though slavery was abolished a long time ago, still the spirit of that evil against humanity lives inside America gnawing at its roots ever so steadily. Against the war on drugs, more black are incarcerated than whites. Most of those imprisoned blacks have never even lived in high crime or notorious neighbourhoods, rather they belong from middle class. Research also claims, in accordance with Alexander’s ideology, that the war on drugs was not actually started to control violent crime outburst, but it was “an elite-based program, generated by conservative, rich politicians” (Critical Thinker). Mass incarceration is potentially toxic for wellbeing of a large number of black families and has grave social repercussions. This elitist agenda generates more hatred for the criminal justice system in the hearts of many American blacks which is a very negative trend. It is this lethal trend that causes black youth today to put up with “legalized discrimination in employment, housing, public benefits, and jury service” (Alexander 2) just like black men did at the height of Jim Crow era. Page after page of credible statistics and legal citations can be found in Alexander’s book which is the authoress’s effort to convey a solid message to public underlined by irrefutable evidence. All those citations point to this reality that nothing has been more devastating for black America than the so-called war on drugs. About one-third of black American population after having spent some time in jail finds itself entrapped in the clutches of second-class citizenship for the rest of life. This is particularly degrading and unjustifiable. Similar claims have been made by many other critics also in the past criminal justice literature, but what makes Alexander stand apart from everyone else is a direct accusation made by her. In this accusation, she claims that the crackdown initiated by the US government against violent crime like drugs is not actually genuinely related to control of crime, rather it is more of an intention to supress the civil rights movement (Schuessler). Alexnader’s claim that this is an era of colorblindness is absolutely valid and logical. This is because race can be no loner explicitly used to discriminate against people of colour. Rather, people with this negative agenda to suppress the gains of civil rights movement use our criminal justice systems to label blacks criminals involved in drug crime. This is why blacks are generally perceived as connected to crime in some possible way even if a black man has never been associated with any criminal activity in life. All those orthodox forms of discrimination are still alive today and actively functional against black men once they are labelled felons. This is how the war on drugs has damaged the American blacks in multiple ways ranging from employment opportunities to housing facilities to voting rights to expulsion from jury service. All these forms of discrimination at once become legal once any black is held suspicious for engaging in drug crime. Racial discrimination is not abolished in the US, rather the government has “merely redesigned it” (Alexander 2). It is absolutely reasonable when alexander through her book suggests that this unjustified treatment calls for nationwide awareness and suspension of war on drugs which has spawned more crime than peace in the US. Despite many arguments loaded with evidence are put forward in the famous book written by Alexander, not everyone shares her views. This is the reason a large body of criticism has also generated upon the book’s release. For example, Joseph Osel’s critical review of Alexander’s ideas is worth mentioning here. In his article, Osel argues that this book, however though-provoking and insightful it may be, is still not for everyone. This book targets those people who fail to understand why racialized social control policies still exist in contemporary America. It is also claimed that “the entire book operates on a falsehood” (Osel). It is suggested that the content of this book cannot be considered absolutely enlightening because it is not. Rather, how enlightening or informative this book really is depends on the readers’ existing knowledge about mass incarceration in the US. Though her book aims to explore the history and present mechanism of the American caste system, but Alexander emphatically ignores the voices of people of colour. Her work is strange and disproportionate, let alone worthy of adding solid value to existing literature on criminal justice of America. There is no doubt that the book contains insightful analysis about the drug war in controlled amounts, but Osel has chosen only two words to portray the contextual frame of Alexander’s work which are “bizarre omission” (Osel). Concluding, the above discussion proves this claim that Alexander has unveiled many logical arguments in her book to motivate common public to appreciate the flaws of American criminal justice system. Many black men are denied legal representation after being convicted. More pressure is put on them through myriad other measures which puts their freedom at jeopardy. This system is particularly damaging for black America because black men are incarcerated at a much higher rate than American whites. Once a person comes out from jail, permanently a second-class citizenship awaits him/her. This is just the case with black Americans also. The bedrock of Alexander’s highly thought-provoking book is made up by this message that mass incarceration in the name of war on drugs is unpleasantly disturbing and strict notice should be taken against this practice. Works cited: Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. US: The New Press, 2010. Print. Critical Thinker. New Jim Crow Lesson 5, Chapter 5. The New Jim Crow. herculodge.typepad.com, 03 Oct. 2014. Web. 09 May. 2014. Osel, Joseph D. “Black Out: Michelle Alexander’s Operational Whitewash: ‘The New Jim Crow’ Reviewed.” International Journal of Radical Critique 1.1 (2012). Print. Schuessler, Jennifer. “Drug Policy as Race Policy: Best Seller Galvanizes the Debate.” The New York Times. nytimes.com, 06 Mar. 2012. Web. 09 May. 2014. Read More