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Bibianna Faia
The New Jim Crow Book: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Dr. Johnny Scott
Texas Tech University
April 7, 2017
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Since the beginning of time racial oppression has been the signature trademark of
America. From the United States starting out with using African-American men and women as
slaves, to today with mass incarceration. African-Americans, especially men, have been targeted
since the beginning of time in this nation. Michelle Alexander wrote The New Jim Crow: Mass
Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness to shine a light on the problems regarding racism
that, we as Americans, are still facing in this day in age. Many people believe that the end of
slavery was the end of racism, but that is far from the truth. When America denounces one caste
system it is soon replaced with a refurbished caste system. As America changes so does the caste
system and the systematic oppression no matter the time period. Michelle Alexander proves that,
whether it be learned or inherited, most people carry an inherent sense of racism even though
slavery ended, legally, in 1865, and while the country has made progress, America is unable to
fully advance because of the systematic racism throughout the community, more specifically, in
the criminal justice system.
Author Michelle Alexander has been involved in civil rights issues since the beginning of
her career. As a civil rights lawyer, Alexander “was inspired to attend law school by the civil
rights victories of the 1950s and 1960s” (3). Even from the beginning Alexander has been
motivated in her career through the civil rights acts. Alexander was working towards racial
equality and to end mass incarceration for 10 years before writing The New Jim Crow. Alexander
admits: “Only after years of working on criminal justice reform did my own focus finally shift”
(12). After years in careers concentrated mostly on the inequality of races, Alexander could
finally write The New Jim Crow. She explains, “what this book is intended to do… is to
stimulate a much-needed conversation about the role of the criminal justice system in creating
and perpetuating racial hierarchy in the United States” (16). Alexander has witnessed first-hand
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racial oppression and has spent many years trying to fight it being the reason she has researched
and written a book that is full of eye opening facts that will change the way you see this country.
First, Alexander analyzes the history of racial oppression in the United States. Mass
incarceration is not the first caste system to be placed on African Americans, specifically males.
While one caste system may die, another is reborn soon after that is revised for an ever-changing
society. How did America get into this position? According to Alexander “this feat has been
achieved largely by appealing to the racism and vulnerability of lower-class whites, a group of
people who are understandably eager to ensure that they never find themselves trapped at the
bottom of the American hierarchy” (22). America feeds off the fear that many people have of not
wanting to be the bottom. However, since African-Americans were considered different than
white people they became easy targets. Like Native Americans, African-Americans were seen as
