Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (10th Anniversary Edition) by Michelle Alexander

12 reviews

eelizard's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism

alyssa_s10's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

5.0

One of the most important books to read if you are an American. Or belong to one of the countries that has a police system heavily based on the American police system. This book should be part of a mandator  reading list for college. I listened to the audio book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Racism, and Police brutality

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Slavery

Minor: Addiction

random19379's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, and Acephobia/Arophobia

Minor: Ableism and Slavery

k_perry's review against another edition

challenging informative sad medium-paced

5.0

Very informative and important read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Drug abuse, Racism, Police brutality, and Classism

madradstarchild's review against another edition

challenging informative sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Racism

Moderate: Slavery, Forced institutionalization, and Police brutality

Minor: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Rape, Violence, Murder, and Alcohol

quinnspired's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Racial slurs, Racism, and Police brutality

zombiezami's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad medium-paced

4.0

I'm glad I finally got to read this after having it on my shelf for so long. It's an important political touchstone for a reason. Well reasoned and well researched. It's amazing how the impact of this book has been felt in the last few years, to the point where this book almost seems not to go far enough, since discussions of abolition are more mainstream. Still, very foundational. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Slavery, Torture, and Alcohol

Minor: Genocide, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Excrement, Antisemitism, Car accident, Colonisation, and War

incarceration, capital punishment

meganpbennett's review against another edition

challenging dark informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

The New Jim Crow starts with an interesting premise, and explains it quite well. It focuses on Black men in America, specifically Black men who have been arrested, have served jail time, are currently incarcerated, or have been released on parole or similar. It also looks at how we got here, how we went from slavery to the War on Drugs. 

The author acknowledges that this book has a very narrow focus, and I think that this narrow focus helps the book. While it would have been helpful and informative for there to have been sections on Hispanic men or Black women, keeping the focus on Black men emphasized how 'colorblind' politics really aren't, and how the modern day prison industrial complex had its roots in Slavery, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow. 

It's a fascinating, if depressing, read about something that most people don't think about in modern day America - prisoners, parolees, those who have been arrested, those who have pled guilty, those who have to "check the box". 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Violence, and Police brutality

katsbooks's review against another edition

challenging reflective tense slow-paced

5.0

“The genius of the current caste system, and what most distinguishes it from its predecessors, is that it appears voluntary."

"As a criminal, you have scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a black man living in Alabama at the height of Jim Crow. We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.”

“African Americans are not significantly more likely to use or sell prohibited drugs than whites, but they are made criminals at drastically higher rates for precisely the same conduct.”

“Today’s lynching is a felony charge. Today’s lynching is incarceration. Today’s lynch mobs are professionals. They have a badge; they have a law degree. A felony is a modern way of saying, ‘I’m going to hang you up and burn you.’ Once you get that F, you’re on fire.”

“Seeing race is not the problem. Refusing to care for the people we see is the problem."

What a powerful book. Alexander presents a compelling argument for mass incarceration as the current vehicle of America's racial caste system. It was at the same time enlightening yet enraging to see how history continues to play out in much the same way. As a history teacher, I know I shouldn't be surprised but I always am. I can't decide if it makes me lose faith in humanity because we consistently find ways to oppress one another or gives me more hope because we also consistently fight against it. As I'm sure many reviewers have said, this book should be required reading. It takes a hard look at our criminal justice system and how it has become not much more than a form of social control since the 1960s. It would love to see this book updated in the near future. It's just over 10 years old now. It was published during the Obama administration and I am incredibly interested to learn what kinds of movements or progress has been made (or not made) since the original publication of this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Racism, Forced institutionalization, and War

Moderate: Racial slurs, Slavery, and Police brutality

Minor: Addiction

anniefwrites's review against another edition

challenging informative medium-paced

5.0

I learned so much. SO MUCH. Even at ten years old, this book uncovers so much about the way the American criminal justice system was built and rebuilt to control Black people. Even if you think you know, you don’t know nearly as much as this book offers. My only joy is knowing that this was written before the Black Lives Matter movement took off and defunding prisons and police became a topic of national conversation. The task is enormous, but we’re on our way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Racism, Slavery, and Police brutality

Minor: Xenophobia