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A review by jthunderrr
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
5.0
This book was published ten years ago, and I only finally finished it now. Embarrassed to say it took me so long - I’ve owned this book for at least six years (maybe longer!) and picked it up a few times, but never finished.
Definitely wish I would have read it sooner. However, reading this book a decade after it was first published, I’m struck by how much everything has changed - and how much everything is the same.
Michelle Alexander emphasized the need for a broad, multiracial movement calling for changes to our criminal justice system, and the work of Black Lives Matter comes to mind. Alexander focuses on the racial symbolism of an Obama presidency, but reading this during the Trump years adds some gravitas that painfully demonstrates her points.
Public discourse has evolved - while we’re not all
in agreement as a society, we are actively discussing defunding the police, reparations, and prison abolition in ways we haven’t before. We’re talking about systemic and structural racism and interlocking systems of oppression.
And yet - the War on Drugs has not ended. Police brutality has not ended. Mass incarceration has not ended.
Abolish police, abolish prison. Reform will never be enough. We need a whole new justice system.
Definitely wish I would have read it sooner. However, reading this book a decade after it was first published, I’m struck by how much everything has changed - and how much everything is the same.
Michelle Alexander emphasized the need for a broad, multiracial movement calling for changes to our criminal justice system, and the work of Black Lives Matter comes to mind. Alexander focuses on the racial symbolism of an Obama presidency, but reading this during the Trump years adds some gravitas that painfully demonstrates her points.
Public discourse has evolved - while we’re not all
in agreement as a society, we are actively discussing defunding the police, reparations, and prison abolition in ways we haven’t before. We’re talking about systemic and structural racism and interlocking systems of oppression.
And yet - the War on Drugs has not ended. Police brutality has not ended. Mass incarceration has not ended.
Abolish police, abolish prison. Reform will never be enough. We need a whole new justice system.