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#Post#: 210-------------------------------------------------- |
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Michelle Alexander, THE NEW JIM CROW (2010) |
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By: agate Date: March 12, 2014, 8:40 pm |
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Michelle Alexander, THE NEW JIM CROW: MASS INCARCERATION IN THE |
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AGE OF COLORBLINDNESS (2010; revised edition, 2012) |
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Michelle Alexander is a civil rights lawyer, and she clearly has |
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an agenda. She makes a very persuasive case for the gradual and |
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little-noticed development of a "racial undercaste" in the |
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United States in the last twenty or thirty years, as the war on |
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drugs has moved forward at an alarming pace--and as many who |
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have served time find themselves disenfranchised and unable to |
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avail themselves of other advantages of US citizenship upon |
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their release from prison. Alexander sees these developments as |
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a concerted campaign to insure that large numbers of |
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African-American men stay at the very bottom of the economic |
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ladder. |
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One source she often draws upon, however, is the controversial |
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Lerone Bennett, long-time editor of Ebony magazine, whose books |
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have met with a mixed critical reception over the years. For |
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instance, Eric Foner writing in the American Historian, |
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expresses reservations in ]his review of his most recent book |
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(on Lincoln) |
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http://www.ericfoner.com/reviews/040900latimes.html. |
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And Alexander cites some very astonishing facts comparing the |
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number of incarcerations in the 2000s to those in the 1970s, as |
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well as numerous facts about prison construction, numbers of |
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felony convictions, and many others. |
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She insists that crimes that are tolerated "on one side of town" |
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aren't tolerated in another side of town--white people have been |
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able to traffic in illegal drugs for recreation with impunity |
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while African-Americans are searched without due cause and |
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arrested for possession on very slight or nonexistent evidence. |
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She points out that prisons are now a very big business, with a |
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lot to lose from any diminution in the number of incarcerations. |
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One of her most alarming observations concerns the increasing |
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militarization of the police--something any occasional watcher |
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of the TV program Cops will have noted. The military has been |
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making weapons freely available to the police for quite some |
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time, Alexander discloses. |
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This is a hard-hitting book, and, fortunately for the extremely |
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important cause the author is backing, she doesn't adopt a |
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shrill or strident tone though she is clearly outraged. |
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Outrage seems to be in order. |
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--As a postscript here, it is well known that African-Americans |
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have been wrongfully convicted of crimes. The war on drugs is |
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the area where wrongful convictions have been particularly |
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widespread lately. But then there was a former student of mine, |
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Delbert Tibbs, who was wrongfully convicted (in Florida) of rape |
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and murder and who served 3 years in prison, two of them on |
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death row, before being freed: |
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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/us/delbert-tibbs-who-left-death-row-and-fough… |
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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/us/delbert-tibbs-who-left-death-row-and-fough… |
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--There's nothing at all new about the injustice |
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African-Americans have suffered in this country. |
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Michelle Alexander's book, calling attention to the most recent |
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manifestation of that injustice, should be read and discussed. |
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Apparently it has attracted considerable attention. Good. |
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