Reviews with content warning for Racism - The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

47 reviews

lizziaha's review against another edition

informative

4.0

This book made a huge contribution to the shifting of my worldview. I highly recommend this book for a more complete understanding of race in America.

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ericadawson's review

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challenging dark hopeful informative tense

4.5

A thoroughly-researched book that doesn't get too jaded to read, The New Jim Crow is a great explanation of the blight of mass incarceration on American society. While there were things I already knew, there were lots of things I didn't. Many points about prison and police abolition were solidified for me

To me, though, Alexander takes an approach to white people's complicity in white supremacy/anti-Blackness that does too much to reduce their own responsibility--collectively and as individuals--in a) the support for the structures that exist to hold Black people down, and b) the refusal (passive or active) to dismantle them. Perhaps because this book was written in what I'd now call a wildly different time from ours--it was 2010, Obama was the first Black president, the word "postracial" was taken seriously, and from what I can see/remember, none of what exists now in the uber-racist 2023 was part of the mainstream conversation 13 years ago. Hindsight and the current political climate might be tainting how I receive this book. I hope so. I cannot fathom being expected to be as concerned for poor white people's racist tendencies and economic plight as I am for the pain and violence I and other Black people experience at their hands, under the system they helped build.

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emmablue's review against another edition

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4.5

every american should read this book. the information is essential.

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alyssa_s10's review against another edition

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informative medium-paced

5.0

One of the most important books to read if you are an American. Or belong to one of the countries that has a police system heavily based on the American police system. This book should be part of a mandator reading list for college. I listened to the audio book.

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