Imagine yourself walking in the middle of the night‚ and suddenly‚ a person approaches you with a gun and threatens to rob you of all your possessions. Take a moment to focus on the robber’s physical appearance‚ what does the robber look like? Regardless of what the robber looks like‚ the physical characteristics of him or her have no actual significance. The purpose of this scenario is to show how visualizing and defining a criminal based on physical features is a form of active participation within
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In chapter two of Michelle Anderson’s “The New Jim Crow‚” Alexander explains how the system of mass incarceration works. Anderson argues that the War on Drugs has led to the increment of African Americans in state and federal prisons for non-serious drug violations (possession). Most of these men have no serious criminal histories and are rarely drug kings or high ranked drug dealers. Due to the government’s persistence in making the community safer by removing “criminals‚” they have developed programs
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C. Vann Woodward’s book The Strange Career of Jim Crow is a close look at the struggles of the African American community from the time of Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement. The book portrays a scene where the Negroes are now free men after being slaves on the plantations and their adaptation to life as being seen as free yet inferior to the White race and their hundred year struggle of becoming equals in a community where they have always been seen as second class citizens. To really
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generation of individuals amongst us who know what it takes to earn those liberties. Anybody of the age of sixty can tell you about the injustices and injury inflicted upon African American in the past. Enacted between the years of 1876 and 1965‚ Jim Crow laws were local and state laws whose sole purpose was to keep Blacks oppressed. The laws mandated that Whites and Blacks be segregated in all things. In the North‚ de facto segregation was practiced‚ meaning that segregation was not condoned by the
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February 5‚ 2013 Senior Seminar The New Jim Crow In the book “The New Jim Crow” author Michelle Alexander talks about numerous issues of racial inequality in our criminal justice system. Alexander’s book is something every person who even has an interest in the criminal justice field should read‚ as it really looks beyond the color of a person’s skin. Alexander points out the vast majority of the problems our criminal justice system faces in racial inequality and discrimination. These problems
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Michelle Alexander author of "The New Jim Crow" argues that Mass Incarceration has regenerated laws similar to Jim Crow; Alexander believes these caste systems such as Jim Crow and slavery are similar to the existing system of mass incarceration. In addition‚ Alexander alleges the U.S. criminal justice system created laws that mainly target African Americans through the War on Drugs. In comparing mass incarceration with Jim Crow‚ Alexander points to compelling parallels regarding political disenfranchisement
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In the article‚ The New Jim Crow‚ author and professor Michelle Alexander eloquently examines and delves into how mass incarceration in the United States is a new type of class structure‚ a new racial caste system (Alexander 7). Her motive is to increase understanding on the issue‚ be a force for change‚ and foster dialogue. She provides the reader context on her life by giving personal examples as well as using facts and background to cement her thesis. Alexander constructs both a compelling and
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I listened to the audiobook version of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness and as I listened I walked through the streets of Boston. One night as I listened to Michelle Alexander talk about how African American men are far more likely to be stopped and searched by the police‚ I came across two Emerson Police Officers forcing a black man to the ground. He knelt down with his hands in the air as they patted his body down. Maybe he had done something do deserve this treatment
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in plaintiff-side class-action lawsuits regarding racial and gender discrimination. She then later became a writer. In The New Jim Crow she exployed the prejustice that black people face in America. She noted that while slavery
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human suffering‚ or diminishing the sum of happiness." This quote by suffragist and philanthropist Clara Barton so eloquently describes the issues within the United States prison system and its desperate need to for reformation. Chapter four of The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander brought forth the gaspingly oppressive sector of prison (via the judicial branch). Alexander illuminated the reader to the realities of the United States prison system and the covert nuances of racism‚ discrimination‚ and
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