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The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
10 reviews
alyssa_s10's review against another edition
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Racism, and Police brutality
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Slavery
Minor: Addiction
k_perry's review against another edition
challenging
informative
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Very informative and important read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Racism, Classism, Confinement, and Police brutality
madradstarchild's review
challenging
informative
sad
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
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
informative
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug use, Drug abuse, Racism, and Slavery
spongebobbiii's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Drug abuse, and Slavery
zombiezami's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
4.0
I'm glad I finally got to read this after having it on my shelf for so long. It's an important political touchstone for a reason. Well reasoned and well researched. It's amazing how the impact of this book has been felt in the last few years, to the point where this book almost seems not to go far enough, since discussions of abolition are more mainstream. Still, very foundational.
Content Warnings
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
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
The New Jim Crow starts with an interesting premise, and explains it quite well. It focuses on Black men in America, specifically Black men who have been arrested, have served jail time, are currently incarcerated, or have been released on parole or similar. It also looks at how we got here, how we went from slavery to the War on Drugs.
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".
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".
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Police brutality, Confinement, Slavery, Hate crime, Drug abuse, and Violence
andyfrenchhh's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Police brutality, Racism, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, and Drug abuse
rubybooks's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
5.0
I apologise in advance if this review is a bit jumbled - I listened to the audiobook, so I just made some notes while I was listening. This is definitely a book that you should read for yourself! I'll mention a lot of the themes Alexander touches on, and the ones that stood out to me, but so many topics are covered so I won't be able to mention them all. I'd highly recommend the audiobook, but I also want to get a physical copy so I can mark notes and passages.
The New Jim Crow is a work of non-fiction focusing on mass incarceration in the United States and how it affects Black Americans. I didn't know that much about mass incarceration in the US, beyond knowing vaguely about policies such as the war on drugs. And let me tell you, I learned so much from this book! Alexander backs up her ideas with evidence so well, which I appreciated as I can now integrate those examples into my own conversations. I read an updated edition that included an additional preface where Michelle Alexander addresses questions she has received about the book, such as why she focused on Black men and not Black women. and I liked that she included this.
Alexander covers so much in this book - it's impossible for me to mention it all. The book begins by talking about slavery and the aftermath of abolition. The birth of Jim Crow meant that even after slavery was abolished, it still continued through labour, discrimination and incarceration. Slavery even remained appropriate as a punishment for a crime. Alexander discusses the past in order to compare the systemic racism to the current state of mass incarceration in the USA. Everything is discussed within the context of colourblindness, and how it can be just as dangerous as being overtly racist.
There is a lot of discussion on Reagan's war on drugs, which I knew a little about, but I learned so much more detail here. For example, I didn't realise that the war on drugs actually started before crack cocaine was a thing, rather than a response. There was and is a huge discrepancy between drug charges for middle class white men using powdered cocaine, and working class Black men using smaller amount of crack cocaine. The amount of time people serve as minimal sentences for only carrying small amounts of drugs is horrific, especially when Alexander compares sentences to other countries.
It is common for police to use traffic violations as a pretext to search for drugs. Federal grants greatly incentivised the police force's participation too. Alexander uses the metaphor of a bird cage for systemic racism to link together many factors contributing to mass incarceration, such as police drug searches, racial bias, pressure to plead guilty, harsh sentencing laws, invisible punishment outside of prison and the treatment of people as second class citizens. A lot of this content is heavy, and some of the case studies were hard to read about because their situations were so clearly unjust. It was especially disheartening to see all the times the Supreme Court reversed their own decisions.
So overall, I would highly recommend reading this book. I think mass incarceration is a topic that a lot of people don't know much about, and I think this book is a great starting point to understanding its devastating impact and the relation of mass incarceration to past systems of racial control. The New Jim Crow helped me confront my own unconscious biases, as well as thinking more about comparisons to other justice systems. I learned so much from this book and it did not disappoint! I'd give content warnings for mentions of racism, mass incarceration, slavery, drug use, police corruption.
The New Jim Crow is a work of non-fiction focusing on mass incarceration in the United States and how it affects Black Americans. I didn't know that much about mass incarceration in the US, beyond knowing vaguely about policies such as the war on drugs. And let me tell you, I learned so much from this book! Alexander backs up her ideas with evidence so well, which I appreciated as I can now integrate those examples into my own conversations. I read an updated edition that included an additional preface where Michelle Alexander addresses questions she has received about the book, such as why she focused on Black men and not Black women. and I liked that she included this.
Alexander covers so much in this book - it's impossible for me to mention it all. The book begins by talking about slavery and the aftermath of abolition. The birth of Jim Crow meant that even after slavery was abolished, it still continued through labour, discrimination and incarceration. Slavery even remained appropriate as a punishment for a crime. Alexander discusses the past in order to compare the systemic racism to the current state of mass incarceration in the USA. Everything is discussed within the context of colourblindness, and how it can be just as dangerous as being overtly racist.
There is a lot of discussion on Reagan's war on drugs, which I knew a little about, but I learned so much more detail here. For example, I didn't realise that the war on drugs actually started before crack cocaine was a thing, rather than a response. There was and is a huge discrepancy between drug charges for middle class white men using powdered cocaine, and working class Black men using smaller amount of crack cocaine. The amount of time people serve as minimal sentences for only carrying small amounts of drugs is horrific, especially when Alexander compares sentences to other countries.
It is common for police to use traffic violations as a pretext to search for drugs. Federal grants greatly incentivised the police force's participation too. Alexander uses the metaphor of a bird cage for systemic racism to link together many factors contributing to mass incarceration, such as police drug searches, racial bias, pressure to plead guilty, harsh sentencing laws, invisible punishment outside of prison and the treatment of people as second class citizens. A lot of this content is heavy, and some of the case studies were hard to read about because their situations were so clearly unjust. It was especially disheartening to see all the times the Supreme Court reversed their own decisions.
So overall, I would highly recommend reading this book. I think mass incarceration is a topic that a lot of people don't know much about, and I think this book is a great starting point to understanding its devastating impact and the relation of mass incarceration to past systems of racial control. The New Jim Crow helped me confront my own unconscious biases, as well as thinking more about comparisons to other justice systems. I learned so much from this book and it did not disappoint! I'd give content warnings for mentions of racism, mass incarceration, slavery, drug use, police corruption.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, and Slavery
readandfindout's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
On first read in 2018: 4.5 stars. Though I can't say that this was an enjoyable read (as the topic is maddening), it was extremely informative. It only lost half a star because it was at times repetitive.
2023 reread:
Overall rating: 4.5 stars
Style/writing: 4.5 stars
Themes: 4.5 stars
Perspective: 4.5 stars
2023 reread:
Overall rating: 4.5 stars
Style/writing: 4.5 stars
Themes: 4.5 stars
Perspective: 4.5 stars
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Police brutality, Racism, and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Addiction, Racial slurs, Violence, Slavery, and Drug abuse
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