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Yu Kawaida
Professor Corbin
English 13- 1258
24 April 2016
The Way How We See the World
“We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it,” Michelle
Alexander states in her book The New Jim Crow (2). Targeting black men through the War on
Drug and decimating communities of color, she demonstrates the way people see the world and
social movements are done based on race. Chapter 2 talks about how the system of mass
incarceration actually works, focusing on War on Drugs. Chapter 3 discusses unfair treatments
for African Americans in the criminal system. Alexander makes some good use of statistical
findings about racial discrimination that exists today by thoroughly approaching to cases in the
criminal justice system.
First, giving studies as evidence, Alexander takes a close look at the system of mass
incarceration and sees in what way, it works in the criminal justice system with a focus on the
War on Drug. As one big factor of racial discrimination in the criminal system, she points out the
authority of prosecutors. As she mentions in chapter 2, a prosecutor is in charge; “[t]he
prosecutor is free to dismiss a case for any reason or no reason at all” and is also free to
overcharge a defendant (87). This gives the defendant a pressure to plead guilty to crimes
resulting in “thousands of people… swept into the criminal justice system every year pursuant to
the drug war without much regard for their guilt or innocence” (89). Here, Alexander logically
makes a good, strong point of a relationship between the power of prosecutors and mass
incarceration of African American. According to Offices of the United States Attorney at United
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States Department of Justice, “Once a prosecutor has decided to charge a corporation, the
prosecutor at least presumptively should charge… the most serious offense that is consistent with
the nature of the defendant’s misconduct and that is likely to result in a sustainable conviction”
(Principles of Federal Prosecution of Business Organizations). What this quote means is that it is
a prosecutor who makes a final judgment whether the corporation is guilty or innocent. Even if
the prosecutor has a racial bias toward African Americans and makes an unreasonable judgment,
it is very difficult for defendants to fight against the prosecutor.
Importantly, this problem of the authority of the prosecutors is closely involved in a mass
incarceration problem of African Americans. For instance, Alexander says there are thousands of
