The New Jim Crow

Michelle Alexander

Jan 2012 · The New Press

About this ebook

Once in a great while a book comes along that changes the way we see the world and helps to fuel a nationwide social movement. The New Jim Crow is such a book. Praised by Harvard Law professor Lani Guinier as "brave and bold," this book directly challenges the notion that the election of Barack Obama signals a new era of colorblindness. With dazzling candor, legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." By targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control—relegating millions to a permanent second-class status—even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness. In the words of Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, this book is a "call to action."

Called "stunning" by Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David Levering Lewis, "invaluable" by the Daily Kos, "explosive" by Kirkus, and "profoundly necessary" by the Miami Herald, this updated and revised paperback edition of The New Jim Crow, now with a foreword by Cornel West, is a must-read for all people of conscience.

Ratings and reviews

Stubborn refusal to see the major changes that have taken place in the heart of our country. Instead the author inserted her own prejudices and reverse racism (yes, it IS real) as an attempt to justify the criminal behavior of those claiming innocence despite being adjudicated guilty. All I heard as I read was more of Al Sharpton's vitriol and fake conspiracies. (Tawana Brawley anyone?) There are some people with negative thoughts about all things black. But the vast majority of Caucasians are NOT racist.

It's a good start but a lot was left out for example to many black man are being out right murdered by white police officers and its found to be justified. Second, a black male sentencing is two third longer then a white male committing the same crime. Then think of the black male father figure taken from the home leaving the mother to work and the streets to raise the child, which produces the next gen

ill be perfectly honest i didn't read it, and didn't have to. she thinks that people are in jail because they are black. thats just not true. i bet you can find as much innocent white people in jail as black and brown and whatever. with the small exception of innocent people, the other people incarcerated are there because they broke the law not because they're black.

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.