New Jim Crow Theme

The book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander, has a few different themes. The themes that stuck out to me from both readings and lectures are ignorance and denial, and the failure of colorblindness. The central theme of Alexander’s book is basically that the American system of mass incarceration is a systematic effort to ostracize people of color just like the old Jim Crow laws did in the 19th and 20th centuries. The present-day prisons make it hard for those released to find houses and jobs, and even lead regular lives like those who have never been to prison. The New Jim Crow can only be continued if the American people go through mass denial and ignorance. Most people, however, know
Colorblindness, nonetheless, does not actually work. Colorblindness, in essence, states that everyone is created equally by the government regardless of race and the laws surrounding it seem to make it sound factual. The government and law enforcement do take part in racial profiling, granting people or color harsher jail sentences and punishments than their white counterparts. It is not uncommon for people to receive prison sentences of more than fifty years for minor crimes (Alexander, 91). The media bands together to create this negative, misleading image that black people are almost destined to display criminal behavior. Because of mandatory minimums and the three-strike laws, when people of color are guilty of minor crimes, they end up receiving ludicrously lengthy prison sentences. Being released from prison makes life hard for people of color so most often, they have no choice but to return to a life of crime. This, in turn, almost guarantees reincarceration for formerly incarcerated