Extra credit: SOCI 2201 Name: Lauryn Tonou Sociological analysis of “The House I Live In” The incarceration system in the country has become predicated on economics rather than justice. Drug abuse is not a crime against the society, it is mainly medical as problem. Ethnic and racial prejudice rooted social control in American anti-drug policy. Those are arguments deftly assembled in the documentary by Eugene Jarecki with assistance from David Simon, former crime reporter.…
Chapter 2 of The New Jim Crow focuses on how the system of mass incarceration works. Alexander concentrates on the "War on Drugs," because "convictions for drug offenses are the single most important cause of the explosion in incarceration rates in the United States." Early on, she exposes myths, noting that the war is not "aimed at ridding the nation of drug 'kingpins' or big-time drug dealers," and the drug war is not "principally concerned with dangerous drugs" (60).…
The New Jim Crow, written by Michelle Alexander, gives a brief history recount of the past caste systems that have oppressed African-Americans and proposes that today there is a new caste system. She suggests that today’s caste system is created by the U.S. criminal justice system by targeting black men and incarcerating them. In other words, she says that today’s racial caste is based on the mass incarceration of African-Americans.…
were southern blacks. Hundreds of other lynchings and acts of mob terror aimed at brutalizing…
Alexander does make a very strong argument for her premise, I found her most troubling argument to be that of the underlying conspiracy by whites, particularly the establishment, against people of color. Ms. Alexander argues that the birth of mass incarceration began in the late 1960’s after the enactment of the Civil Rights Act removed most of the segregational laws in place at the time. According to Alexander, in the search for another method of race control, the establishment sought to allay the fears of rising crime rates with more stringent penalties for violent crime and particularly drug possession; which correlated to the increase in violent crime (Alexander, 2010). This was the path to the future “war on drugs” and the spark that led to the mass incarceration solution. Forman, in his piece challenging Alexander’s analogy, alleges that the crime rates the FBI was reporting were not, as Alexander alleges, misreported; that the street crime rate did quadruple in the years from 1959-1971 (Forman, 2012). Forman also counters Alexander’s conspiracy argument with the fact that it was black activists who were clamoring most for stiffer punishment for convicted criminals, as a way of trying to improve the deplorable living conditions in the inner city areas (Foreman, 2012). If black activists were the group most adamant about increasing sentences as a crime deterrent, how could there be a…
This week’s readings discussed a concept called “The New Jim Crow” which is about how black people and Latino's are most likely to get more prison time than their counter-parts even when the crime committed is the same. The author goes on to talk about how people who are black and brown get stopped more and searched than any other race. Personally, I think the reason why people who are black and brown are most likely to be stopped and searched is because , in most cases they cannot afford a good lawyer who will stand up for their rights , There are public defenders but they have lot of cases to deal with and paper work with that being said if they can get someone to admit to the crime and do the time and get a shorter sentences they're work…
To what extent does the Michelle alexander use persuasion in order to show similarity between the Jim Crow and the new American justice system? The new American justice system was believed to be a refined version of the previous Jim crow that promised equality and liberty to all races. The term “Jim crow” refers to the practice of segregating people in the Us The New Jim Crow was published during the year 2010, it is a book written by Michelle alexander, a credible well known American rights litigator and legal scholar and is best known for this book (The New Jim Crow). She is a professor of law at Ohio state university Mortez college of law and a civil rights advocate. Through her book, she acknowledges and discusses race-related issues…
Michelle Alexander who was born in 1968 is an associate professor of law at Ohio State University also a civil rights advocate and a writer. She is a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, and legal scholar. In recent years, she has taught at a number of universities, including Stanford Law School, where she was an associate professor of law and directed the Civil Rights Clinics. Alexander published the book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. In it, she argues that systemic racial discrimination in the United States has resumed following the Civil Rights Movement's gains; the resumption is embedded in the US War on Drugs and other governmental policies and is having devastating social consequences. She considers the scope and impact of this current law enforcement, legal and penal activity to be comparable with that of the Jim Crow laws of the 19th and 20th centuries. In The New Jim Crow, Alexander argues that mass incarceration in America functions as a system of racial control in a similar way to how Jim Crow once operated. Alexander’s work draws attention to the racial disparity that exists in the criminal justice system. Alexander notes, “Race plays a major role-indeed, a defining role – in the current system, but not because of what is commonly understood as old-fashioned, hostile bigotry. This system of control depends far more on racial indifference (defined as a lack of compassion and caring about race and racial groups) than racial hostility – a feature it actually shares with its predecessors.”…
Alexander, who for many years worked as a civil rights lawyer, uses her vast experience and knowledge concerning the criminal justice system to craft a meticulously researched argument that “colorblindness” is this generation’s most important civil rights issue. As the title indicates, she makes the bold claim that mass incarceration is the 21st century version of Jim Crow. This era in our racial history was one in which brutally devastating laws discriminated and segregated black populations. During Jim Crow, the idea of justice did not exist for black people within law enforcement or court systems. Though her argument is daring, Alexander successfully proves it by analyzing the criminal justice system. She discusses multiple ideas to formulate a case for individuals who are interested in social justice that refocus efforts to tackle the issue of over-populated prisons. In the books introduction, Alexander asserts that she is writing for an audience that cares deeply about racial justice, but also, she wants to empower individuals who have a impression that our nation’s criminal justice system is flawed, but do not have the data or evidence to back up their assumptions.…
Today’s society is known as the “Era of Color Blindness.” The war on drugs from the past to the future has not changed according to Michelle Alexander. The previous Jim Crowe law may be eradicated, but the law was brought back into effect by former president Ronald Reagan, known as the “War on Drugs.” The war on drugs that was put into effect by Ronald Reagan was targeted to lower class communities that had a violent crime rate. Focusing on the “Drug War” took light off a pressing issue known as racial caste in America by making harsher punishments for people who used or sold drugs. Even though the focus was in lower class communities it was also just as common in the middle to upper class communities. The “War on Drugs”…
There are more African Americans under correctional control today, in prison or jail, on probation or parole then where enslaved in 1850s. Civil Rights advocate and writer of The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander acknowledges in her book that the African American community is suffering more than the non-colored people when it comes to the U.S Justice system. Alexander introduces the book with a story about a man names Jarvious Cotton. Cotton was not allowed to vote just like his grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather because of the history behind their color. Cotton’s great-great-grandfather could not vote as a slave. His great-grandfather beaten to death…
The shameful history of the United States is a burden that is currently affecting everything from education to legal policy. Racial segregation has taken a toll on society and the lives of many minorities. The American judicial system lacks the understanding of human potential by targeting low income minorities and subjugating them for petty misdemeanors. Due to racial discrimination, false allegations towards minorities have resulted in wrongfully incarcerated people for petty crimes; more than likely, they will serve longer sentences for these offenses than a Caucasian person would. Without the necessary resources provided, lack of social capital can inflict damage to their reputation and the overall racial perception society has on minorities.…
Omi and Winant describe racial projects as representations or explanations of racial dynamics in an effort to reorganize and redistribute resources along particular racial lines. Racial projects encompass everything from depictions in television and music, to legislative processes or even newspaper headlines. They are a result of “New Racism”. A popular example is the war on drugs. On the outside, it seems racially neutral. It is a campaign seeking to end drug abuse. However, the ways in which policies are enacted single out men of color. Police profiling and everyday prejudice leads many African Americans to be singled out and carted off to jail. When looking at statistics, it seems as if this so called war on drugs was just an effort to incarcerate…
Slavery ending in the United States in 1865, once slavery ended there was the belief that the end racism and oppression would soon follow. However, almost 150 years later racism and the oppression of people of color is still very present in society. The most prevalent form of racism in the United States is institutional racism. Institutional racism is any kind of system of inequality based on race that can occur in institutions. Once slavery ended slaves did not automatically become integrated in society.…
In most places across the south, blacks had few choices but to abide by the laws and accept their predicament. After Reconstruction, white southerners regained control of their states, wanting to keep blacks from dispute and refraining them from gaining civil rights. In order to maintain their slave society, southern whites continued to believe that blacks were naturally inferior to themselves and therefore were entitled to few rights. To help enforce this concept, the Jim Crow laws were created by the white southerners against the blacks. These laws, passed after the Civil War through World War II, were typically created for the discrimination against blacks by denying them their equal rights. Reconstruction further strengthened the desire to keep blacks as inferiors and withhold their rights. The South’s defeat in the Civil War, followed by Reconstruction, destroyed the slave society, but couldn’t eliminate the underlying social attitudes. The Jim Crow laws became the most effective and innovative means for racial class segregation after the emancipation of African Americans in the post-Civil War Period.…