Michelle Alexander starts the introduction by using Jarvious Cotton’s case that three generations could not vote due to different constraints. Immediately I thought, this is a very particular case that is not representative of the entire colored community and that comparing the criminal justice system to the Jim Crow was a bit extreme. Later, Alexander moves to explain her shift in beliefs: From seeing the comparison between the Drug war and Jim Crow as ‘absurd’ to come to believe that mass incarceration is a ‘well-disguised system’ of legalized racism. By mentioning her experience working for ACLU and her changing views, Alexander relates herself to the readers, setting us up by placing us into a neutral and nonjudgemental position.
Throughout Alexander’s writing, the thesis was evident. Numerous times, she emphasizes that this book intends to demonstrate the persistence of legalized discrimination and ‘stimulate a much-needed conversation’ regarding this topic. Alexander claimed that “we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.” Statistics and facts supported this view: White youths have a higher tendency to engage in drugs compare to people of color; however, mass incarceration is submerged with people of color. The statistics provide strong evidence by revealing the questionable contradicting facts indicating that the system has propelled people of color into incarceration and protected whites from getting this status. As a result, stereotypes are being formed and consolidated. This unhealthy cycle continues leading to practices of legalized discrimination, allowing racial injustice to persist but in a slightly altered form. Alexander was right that the criminal justice system’s problem should be informed to a broader audience and stimulate more conversations to establish a new social consensus. However, mass incarceration still does not have the same degree of severity as Jim Crow. Liberty and equality that was promised cannot and should not be reversed. Even though mass incarceration is virtually another form of legalized segregation, it is also critical to acknowledge the liberty and freedom that the colored community had achieved.
I may slightly disagree that mass incarceration is less severe than jim crow in the long run. Jim crow was blatant and it was able to create movements against it, but how will someone make a movement against criminalizing the African Americans in jail who are believed to be criminals. I think that the fact that mass incarceration is more hidden makes it maybe just as severe, if not, just a little less. Since it is more hidden I think that change for mass incarceration of African Americans won’t come as fast.
I think I agree with Adrienne that mass incarceration is definitively not the same as Jim Crow. Currently, there are about 475,000 African Americans combined in both state and federal prisons (End of 2017 – ” https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/30/shrinking-gap-between-number-of-blacks-and-whites-in-prison/ “), and the African American population is 43 million. Personally, to compare the imprisonment of African Americans to the indoctrinated discriminations of Jim Crow where crowds would openly applaud lynchings and the governors brought state troops to prevent African Americans from attending schools is to diminish the degree of racism of the past . As a result, by insisting that Jim Crow is the same as the incarceration of African Americans is unjust because it negates the amount of progress that society has created. In 2001, they were about 2.2 million African Americans imprisoned compared to that of 475,000 recently. Additionally, we, as a society, have learned from the drug crime policies of the 1980s and 1990s of the past and have reformed our actions in order to prevent these disparities from ever occurring. As Joe Biden marvelously mentioned last night, he revealed his regret for passing the 1994 crime bill and its implications, and will attempt to undo that mistake if he becomes president. This is just one of the many clear cut examples of how American society has changed from the past, and to say that 2020 is the same as the Jim Crow 1900s is just wrong.