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A review by meganpbennett
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
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".
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".
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Violence, and Police brutality