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A review by youreadtoomuch
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
5.0
My mind was absolutely blown away. I had very little knowledge coming into this book about the War on Drugs although I was very familiar about the consequences and destruction it left behind in already impoverished communities. Reading about the role the US government played in this full-out war is horrendous and unbelievable. I started this book in a hope to better educate myself and it reinforced a belief I've had bothering me for a while and now it has given me a solid foundation of how to better defend my position.
The argument of race is very prevalent today, so it's always been uncomfortable for me to be firmly against the belief of being colorblind without having a real argument behind my position. This book set it in me that although racial hostility may not be as overt today, racial indifference is very much thriving right under our noses. And this – racial indifference – is the driving force behind colorblind rhetoric and politic. And that indifference is what has rubbed me the wrong way of those unwilling to engage in the very much needed conversations about race and progress and willing to insist they "don't see color." Race shouldn't be overlooked because for all that it sets us apart in terms of culture and lifestyle (not status) its brings us closer together when we value one another.
The argument of race is very prevalent today, so it's always been uncomfortable for me to be firmly against the belief of being colorblind without having a real argument behind my position. This book set it in me that although racial hostility may not be as overt today, racial indifference is very much thriving right under our noses. And this – racial indifference – is the driving force behind colorblind rhetoric and politic. And that indifference is what has rubbed me the wrong way of those unwilling to engage in the very much needed conversations about race and progress and willing to insist they "don't see color." Race shouldn't be overlooked because for all that it sets us apart in terms of culture and lifestyle (not status) its brings us closer together when we value one another.