The New Jim Crow
In Michelle Alexander's “The New Jim Crow” book, Alexander challenges the belief that racism does not exist in America today. She instead, suggests that racism exists today but in a different, more subtle, way. She explores America’s history and key points the significant movements our country has gone through in regards to racial discrimination. In doing this, she offers her point of view in how those movements are still represented in our government and society today. She especially, emphasizes the idea that Jim Crow is prominent in America, just how it was in centuries before.
Alexander is a professor of law at Ohio State University and also teaches at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. As can be seen, her specialties …show more content…
Rice was a white performer, who for the show, covered his face with charcoal to presumably appear as a black person. With his face blackened, he mocked black people and labeled them a subordinate race. The original Jim Crow Era became most known as a way to degrade the African American race in the late nineteenth century. Despite there being controversy about the exact years the original Jim Crow Era ended, it is understood that the death of Jim Crow occurred approximately during Brown v. Board of Education (Alexander 35). Though there is obvious debate on the time period in which it ended, by 1945 whites had concluded that the system would have to be “modified, if not entirely overthrown” (Alexander …show more content…
This new version of Jim Crow is as a confirmation to the stereotypical beliefs of minority groups. She believes that new Jim Crow era is a well-disguised system of racialized social control that functions in a manner similar to the original Jim Crow (Alexander 3). Similar to the original Jim Crow, the new Jim Crow serves as a way to prohibit the African American race from voting since their criminal background follows them even after their release. In addition, they are excluded from participating in activities or events that other citizens have the opportunity to do. Incarceration comes with a lot of baggage and consequences of “poverty, racial segregation, unequal educational opportunities, and the presumed realities of the drug market,” all of which Alexander believes to be the justification behind the new Jim Crow
Alexander is a professor of law at Ohio State University and also teaches at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. As can be seen, her specialties …show more content…
Rice was a white performer, who for the show, covered his face with charcoal to presumably appear as a black person. With his face blackened, he mocked black people and labeled them a subordinate race. The original Jim Crow Era became most known as a way to degrade the African American race in the late nineteenth century. Despite there being controversy about the exact years the original Jim Crow Era ended, it is understood that the death of Jim Crow occurred approximately during Brown v. Board of Education (Alexander 35). Though there is obvious debate on the time period in which it ended, by 1945 whites had concluded that the system would have to be “modified, if not entirely overthrown” (Alexander …show more content…
This new version of Jim Crow is as a confirmation to the stereotypical beliefs of minority groups. She believes that new Jim Crow era is a well-disguised system of racialized social control that functions in a manner similar to the original Jim Crow (Alexander 3). Similar to the original Jim Crow, the new Jim Crow serves as a way to prohibit the African American race from voting since their criminal background follows them even after their release. In addition, they are excluded from participating in activities or events that other citizens have the opportunity to do. Incarceration comes with a lot of baggage and consequences of “poverty, racial segregation, unequal educational opportunities, and the presumed realities of the drug market,” all of which Alexander believes to be the justification behind the new Jim Crow