Jim Crow

“we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.” This statement made by Alexander introduces the specifics as to how the criminal justice system is flawed, and that racism still continues to exist and in a variety of ways. He depicts how the system has changed and that instead of the blatant racism that existed, it has changed into forms of employment and just moving about themselves in society. He later explains how the criminal justice system is flawed and that it unfairly eliminates the possibility that the African American man can be not guilty. This depiction has been made that it is a flaw in the criminal justice system, rather than the racial caste system that it is actually a part of. He also states that the mass incarceration that African American people face is not due to the lack of unemployment or moving up in society, but rather due to the law that prevents African American people from ever escaping this loop hole. Throughout society, they are just denied, through law, to obtain housing and other public benefits, which makes it nearly impossible to become a higher social class than what they originally were. Racism still exists in our society today, and Alexander just explains the variety of ways that they are just unable to escape this hole, due to laws and regulations that are set in place. These laws and regulations are just unfair towards the African Americans as it creates a racial hierarchy and allows for racial injustice in different forms.