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A review by greeneggsandsam
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
"๐๐ก๐๐ซ๐๐ง๐ฎ ๐ข๐๐ฎ ๐๐๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ช๐ฉ ๐๐ค๐ง ๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ช๐จ๐๐ฃ๐๐จ ๐ค๐ ๐๐ก๐๐๐ ๐จ, ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ค๐ ๐จ๐ก๐๐ซ๐๐ง๐ฎ ๐ก๐๐ซ๐๐ ๐ค๐ฃ."
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The New Jim Crow shows how the United States warped the control of a racial minority into its current existence. This country started with direct racially targeted laws, and when those were ruled unconstitutional, our country's leaders used "colorblind" methods to create a new form of political racial discrimination while pretending to not target America's black population. Michelle Alexander clearly delved into so much research on not only our current issues, but the country's past issues that have led us into a country known for mass incarceration that massively targets black people, specifically black men.
This book enraged me. It opened my eyes to the extent of these issues, ones I knew existed but didn't know were as bad as they were. It made me cry. It made me want better for this country and for racial minorities. I'm very glad I finally got and read this book, but as Michelle Alexander says herself, this book is not meant for people like me that already acknowledge that these issues are present in our society. This book is meant for the people who don't believe, and inadvertently perpetuate the issue. And I wish I could force people like that to read this, because ignorance will only allow this already deeply rooted issue to continue expanding, and knowledge is the first step to working towards undoing it.
If you're unsure of whether or not to read it, please do. If you don't want to read the whole thing, I recommend section five specifically. It delves the most into how mass incarceration is a new form of Jim Crow, while briefly mentioning the history and how it adapted to its current state. I recommend the book at its entirety, but section five is gets the point of the book across the most.
โญโญโญโญโญ
The New Jim Crow shows how the United States warped the control of a racial minority into its current existence. This country started with direct racially targeted laws, and when those were ruled unconstitutional, our country's leaders used "colorblind" methods to create a new form of political racial discrimination while pretending to not target America's black population. Michelle Alexander clearly delved into so much research on not only our current issues, but the country's past issues that have led us into a country known for mass incarceration that massively targets black people, specifically black men.
This book enraged me. It opened my eyes to the extent of these issues, ones I knew existed but didn't know were as bad as they were. It made me cry. It made me want better for this country and for racial minorities. I'm very glad I finally got and read this book, but as Michelle Alexander says herself, this book is not meant for people like me that already acknowledge that these issues are present in our society. This book is meant for the people who don't believe, and inadvertently perpetuate the issue. And I wish I could force people like that to read this, because ignorance will only allow this already deeply rooted issue to continue expanding, and knowledge is the first step to working towards undoing it.
If you're unsure of whether or not to read it, please do. If you don't want to read the whole thing, I recommend section five specifically. It delves the most into how mass incarceration is a new form of Jim Crow, while briefly mentioning the history and how it adapted to its current state. I recommend the book at its entirety, but section five is gets the point of the book across the most.