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

Michelle Alexander

New Press, 2010 - Social Science - 290 pages

As the United States celebrates the nation's "triumph over race" with the election of Barack Obama, the majority of young black men in major American cities are locked behind bars or have been labeled felons for life. Although Jim Crow laws have been wiped off the books, an astounding percentage of the African American community remains trapped in a subordinate status - much like their grandparents before them.
In this incisive critique, former litigator-turned-legal-scholar Michelle Alexander provocatively argues that we have not ended racial caste in America: we have simply redesigned it. Alexander shows that, by targeting black men and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control, even as it formally adheres to the principle of color blindness. The New Jim Crow challenges the civil rights community - and all of us - to place mass incarceration at the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in America.

What people are saying

User Review  - diana A. - Overstock.com

I recommend this book. If you want to educate yourself on the Jim crow laws of today the author in my opinion did an excellent job explaining the events. Michelle Alexander is an excellent writer. I ...

New Jim Crow

User Review  - 3toothcleaner - Overstock.com

Although I did not agree with everything the author discussed. She has some very valid arguments. The book is a slightly complexed read but it is worth the effort. It at least makes one aware of what is going on it todays judicial system.

About the author

Michelle Alexander is an associate professor of law at Ohio State University and holds a joint appointment at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. Formerly the director of the ACLU’s Racial Justice Project in Northern California, Alexander served as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun. Cornel West is the Class of 1943 University Professor, emeritus, at Princeton University and is currently Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
• Author: Michelle Alexander
• Edition: illustrated, revised
• Publisher: New Press, 2010
• ISBN: 1595581030, 9781595581037
• Length: 290 pages
• Subjects: Social Science / Discrimination & Race Relations; Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies; Social Science / Penology