“The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander: Introduction

Anesa Toolsee

“The New Jim Crow”, by Michelle Alexander shows the issue of there being a “new Jim Crow” here in the United States. The Jim Crow that we know of is the laws that segregated blacks and whites, forcing blacks to stay below the whites. Alexander brings to the light that we have these over populated prisons that are filled with majority of African Americans. As a result of being labeled as a person that went to jail, the government legally can deny access to employment, housing, public benefits, and the right to vote. These are things that African Americans during the Jim Crow Era were denied. It seems like a coincidence but Alexander believes that it is being done deliberately to African Americans.

The crime rates in the United States compared to Germany and Finland was almost identical, yet the incarceration rate in the U.S was 4 times higher. This confirmed that the U.S was doing something that did not seem logical because majority of the people that committed a crime were black and was incarcerated because of a drug felony. Alexander believes “we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it”. I completely agree with her because minorities today are always below the higher class. They just set up this system in a way to make sure the lower class stays in their place in the lower class. This system is invisible to the world because everyone is playing their role in society and many may believe that the issue is too big to face and may just choose to conform and work within society.

I just can’t believe that these sociologist have come to the conclusion that prisons are a complete failure 30+ years ago and today it has evolved into this necessity to have in a society. To me it shows that maybe they knew this would be a good way to keep the segregation alive and legal at that.

Alexander says that drug abuse is a public health problem, not a crime. Most of the crimes that African Americans are put in prison for are drug offenses. This would lead me to think that if drug abuse were to be looked at from a health issue rather than a crime, alot of these “criminals” would be helped and there wouldn’t be part of this mass incarceration.

Alexander states that in America you can move up class although it may be difficult. That is the slogan that The United States of America runs off of. Everyone believes this is the land of opportunity but they’re these systems in place that are hidden right in front of you like the prisons that help to hinder the movement up in class. Some may believe it was their unfortunate luck to have to grow up in that unsafe neighborhood, with the bad schools, single parent home, or drug infested area. In reality as it was once thought but not to the extreme that the CIA was bringing in crack-cociane to poor neighborhoods to kill off the African Americans. The system is meant to be this way and it’s a cycle to the people that need to stay in their place will have no choice but to stay in their place.
This book wants to inform people of the discrimination that is happening but nobody seems to notice. I believe she is touching on a big part of the issue in this society but this is just one book that only so many will read. These racial injustices need to be addressed and improved to benefit everyone.

Do you agree with Michelle Alexander when she says that drug abuse is a public health issue and not a crime ?

Why is this issue not more aware of in the United States?

Becket and Herbert, excerpts from Banished Reading Response

In the book “Banished”, by Becket and Herbert they do research in Seattle to explain how exclusion has now resurfaced into modern day society. Many are being banned from going into certain parts of the cities by regulations like: Stay Out of Drug Area (SODA), Stay Out of Area of Prostitution (SOAP), Trespass Affidavit Program (TAP), Anti-Social Behavioral Contact and Anti-Social Behavior Orders

.They start off by telling the stories of people that have been wrongfully convicted of a crime and banished from that area for a set amount of time. One example is of Rhonda, who was arrested for talking to a man that could help her find her mother. The man was in an area that was well known for drug trafficking and because she was there she was arrested for “drug traffic loitering”. She got banished from being in the place that her mother resides in. To a daughter that cares for her mother, she would of course break that law. This would then have her put back in jail and have her SODA order extended.

In the book they define banishment as “a punishment inflicted upon criminals, by compelling them to quit a city, place or country for a specific period of time” (10). This banishment dates back to The Old Testament and in Ancient Greece (10). How are we not passed this type of exile and moved forward to better ways of “social control”? Vagrancy and loitering laws are also examples of laws in cities to arrest whoever they think looks like they have no destination. These laws criminalized the basic needs for a person. As a homeless person the only place you may have to sleep for the night is say the public park on a bench. This results in them breaking the orders placed against them and having them extended, because they have nowhere to sleep safely.

In the last chapter of the book their findings were that “banishment works primarily to expand the criminal justice system and dimish both the life circumstances and rights bearing capacity of those who are targeted” (20). The rich get richer and the poor gets poorer. This is a perfect example of this. Law enforcement are targeting people for “how they look and what they symbolize rather than specific behaviors”(15). This happens right here in New York, with the “Stop and Frisk”. You see this in the poorer neighborhood as the banishment are in these neighborhoods as well. The people in jail are also mostly the homeless and people of color (18).

They believe this is just a failure and does not benefit anyone for the future. This creates full prisons with people that have commited misdemeanor crimes. This gives the already needy person one more thing to need, if they are not aready in jail, a place to sleep without getting arrested.

This is a video about sex offenders who have been forced to live under a bridge because they have been banished from everywhere else in the city.http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xE1uWnxVRXk