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Reviews tagging 'Slavery'
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
26 reviews
nagev's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Classism, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Racism, and Police brutality
Moderate: Violence and Slavery
madradstarchild's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Racism and Confinement
Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, and Slavery
Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Racial slurs, Violence, Murder, Gun violence, and Death
caelinsullivan's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Drug use, Drug abuse, Racism, and Slavery
spongebobbiii's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Racism, Drug abuse, and Slavery
zombiezami's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, and Police brutality
Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Slavery, and Torture
Minor: Antisemitism, Car accident, Colonisation, Excrement, Genocide, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and War
incarceration, capital punishmentmeganpbennett's review against another edition
5.0
The author acknowledges that this book has a very narrow focus, and I think that this narrow focus helps the book. While it would have been helpful and informative for there to have been sections on Hispanic men or Black women, keeping the focus on Black men emphasized how 'colorblind' politics really aren't, and how the modern day prison industrial complex had its roots in Slavery, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow.
It's a fascinating, if depressing, read about something that most people don't think about in modern day America - prisoners, parolees, those who have been arrested, those who have pled guilty, those who have to "check the box".
Graphic: Racism, Police brutality, Confinement, Slavery, Hate crime, Drug abuse, and Violence
nytephoenyx's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Slavery
katsbooks's review against another edition
5.0
"As a criminal, you have scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a black man living in Alabama at the height of Jim Crow. We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.”
“African Americans are not significantly more likely to use or sell prohibited drugs than whites, but they are made criminals at drastically higher rates for precisely the same conduct.”
“Today’s lynching is a felony charge. Today’s lynching is incarceration. Today’s lynch mobs are professionals. They have a badge; they have a law degree. A felony is a modern way of saying, ‘I’m going to hang you up and burn you.’ Once you get that F, you’re on fire.”
“Seeing race is not the problem. Refusing to care for the people we see is the problem."
What a powerful book. Alexander presents a compelling argument for mass incarceration as the current vehicle of America's racial caste system. It was at the same time enlightening yet enraging to see how history continues to play out in much the same way. As a history teacher, I know I shouldn't be surprised but I always am. I can't decide if it makes me lose faith in humanity because we consistently find ways to oppress one another or gives me more hope because we also consistently fight against it. As I'm sure many reviewers have said, this book should be required reading. It takes a hard look at our criminal justice system and how it has become not much more than a form of social control since the 1960s. It would love to see this book updated in the near future. It's just over 10 years old now. It was published during the Obama administration and I am incredibly interested to learn what kinds of movements or progress has been made (or not made) since the original publication of this book.
Graphic: Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Racism, and War
Moderate: Police brutality, Racial slurs, and Slavery
Minor: Addiction
andyfrenchhh's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Hate crime, Police brutality, Racism, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, and Drug abuse
anniefwrites's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Racism, Slavery, Police brutality, and Confinement
Minor: Xenophobia