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Those are the sounds you’d hear. The first, a judge’s gavel
coming down, sealing your fate for life. The second, the
sound of handcuffs going around your wrists, leading to a
chain around your waist.
That’s what you’d hear if you were convicted of a felony.
Maybe you’d be guilty. Maybe you’d be innocent. For sure,
you’d be scared.
In cities all over the country, African-Americans –
particularly men – face unbalanced rates of incarceration
when compared to prison time served by whites. In the book
The New Jim Crow, author Michelle Alexander
likens this travesty to slavery and more.
In 48 of the 50 United States, if you are convicted of a
drug felony, you lose your right to vote. Discrimination of
felons is legal, so getting or keeping a job may be nearly
impossible. Good luck finding an apartment because you
automatically become ineligible for public housing and food
stamps. Because you’ll be newly homeless, chances are that
you’ll lose your kids, too.
In her job as a litigator, Alexander began to pay attention
to this.
“I came to see,” she says, “that mass incarceration… emerged
as a stunningly comprehensive and well-disguised system of
racialized social control… strikingly similar to Jim Crow.”
Her finger points almost directly to the War on Drugs.
Research shows that all races use and sell illegal drugs at
the same rate, but African-Americans are arrested and
convicted at much higher rates than are whites; in fact,
over 13 times more black men have been sent to state prisons
on drug charges than white men.
Surely, much of the problem can be attributed to poverty and
lack of resources, but Alexander also believes that racial
profiling is at fault. Officials appear to be targeting
African-Americans when it comes to drugs and crime, and
judges often seem uncomfortable with unfair sentencing laws.
So what can be done?
Alexander says that we don’t want “colorblindness;” rather,
we need to follow the teachings of Dr. King by learning to
recognize and accept differences. Non-complacency,
solidarity, and being vocal in opposition to this old-new
way of discrimination can definitely make change.
Using heart-wrenching stories and hard, solid facts, author,
advocate and litigator Michelle Alexander makes an excellent
argument. Her war on the War on Drugs is compelling and her
call for a large overhaul of police departments, laws, and
court systems makes total sense. No doubt, this book will
make readers impassioned and hungry for action.
The problem – and Alexander admits this in her introduction
– is that this book is not for general audiences. The
material in here is deeply steeped in legalese and
statistics and though you will find those case studies, most
of the book is pretty dry for the lay-person.
I think, if you’re interested in social justice and want to
make a difference, this book is definitely worth trying.
Beware, though, that it’s not a relaxing Sunday read, by any
means. While The New Jim Crow is a bang-up book, for
most casual readers, it just won’t click. |
