In 2012, Michelle Alexander published a book called
“The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. In the book, she argues that the “tough”
approach to crime approach that has intensified with the war on drugs has had
drastic effects on black America. Over
the course of their lives, nearly one-third of black men are likely to spend
some time in prison, and once they are released, they are faced with permanent
second class citizenship. Furthermore,
Alexander argues that the policies of the drug war, and being “tough on crime” was
less a response to increase in crime, and more of an effort to push back
against some of the gains made by African Americans during the Civil Rights
movement. After serving out their
sentences, all former prisoners convicted of felonies face job discrimination,
disqualification from welfare programs, lack of access to student loans, and
disenfranchisement. In an article in the
New York Times, Alexander stated that one of the main purposes of her book is
to show how our conscious and unconscious biases have contributed to create
systems of social control.
Under Jim Crow, African Americans experienced much
of the same control. In the black community’s
push for mandatory public education for everyone, they received a lot of
backlash. While it was mainly their
efforts that created universal education in the South, they were met with
unequal facilities and resources that made their education worse than their
white counterparts. Furthermore, African
Americans faced violence when trying to assert their political rights,
including the right to vote. When they
weren’t met with violence at the polls, low-income African Americans were faced
with poll taxes that they were unable to afford.
To me, this sounds just like our modern day
post-prison discrimination. African
Americans continue to be met with challenges in obtaining work, going back to
school, getting help, voting, etc.
Despite all of the efforts and achievements of the civil rights
movement, African Americans still seem to be operating under a new system of
social control that most people are not even conscious of. Many of the drug policies that land people in
prison to begin with have strong racial undertones. The war on drugs has become a numbers game,
where the quantity of arrests is considered more valuable than their
“quality”. It can take months, and
years, to actually catch a major player in the production and transportation of
drugs. That’s months and years of no
results. However, focusing on drug users
rather than the manufacturers gets actual results that the war on drugs is
“working.” These laws leave low-income
Americans particularly vulnerable to drug charges, especially for African
Americans in cities. Drug sweeps are not
occurring in rural communities or affluent suburbs nearly as often as in inner
cities. Though I cannot remember exactly
where this statistic came from, I read that even when class and race are
accounted for, the number of drug users remains the same across the board, yet
low income African Americans make up to something like 60-70% of people in
prison or on probation for drug charges.
The effect of the war on drugs on the African
American community certainly suggests that it is a new means of social
control. It seems that throughout
history, the African American community has strived to make improvements to
their lives (for example, the push for universal education and the civil rights
movement) only to be met with policies that limit their freedoms. The fact that our prison system and the war
on drugs affect a higher proportion of African Americans than whites does not
seem to be widely known by the American public. How do you think colorblind
ideology has contributed to the lack of awareness about the racial disparities
in our prison system? And do you agree
with Alexander than the war on drugs, and the mass incarceration of African
Americans is really the new Jim Crow?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/books/michelle-alexanders-new-jim-crow-raises-drug-law-debates.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
The issue with the American prison system is that we are putting people in prison who need help and do not need to be behind bars. One of the issues with this war on drugs is that most of the arrests being made are in low-income areas where drug use is rampant. The fact that almost 1/3 of African American males will spend at least some part of their life in jail is staggering. I believe that is an unfortunate statistic, but it is more based on class than race. I believe that a change in the overall strategy is needed. There is no reason that drug addicts should be thrown in jail, when they could use real help in a rehab facility that is focused on getting them better. America is not colorblind because many African Americans are still associated with stereotypes such as lazy or poor, but the fact that cops target African Americans is true in some instances. It is easy for policemen to enter a poor black area and arrest people, but is much harder to find white-collar crime. With a switch in the overall strategy, I believe that this injustice can be fixed, and the crime rate will not be associated with race, and instead target who is actually committing felonies.
ReplyDeleteThis post reminds me of the discriminatory stop and frisk policy that New York practices. The police in New York have the jurisdiction to stop and frisk anyone that they deem reasonably suspicious. Reports show that last year police stopped New Yorkers 532,911 times to find that 88% of them were totally innocent. Of the people stopped, 55% were black, 32% were Latino and only 10% were white. The disparity between the numbers is an indication of continued racial profiling against blacks and Latinos. Earlier this week a judge deemed the practice unconstitutional and called a stop to it; however racial profiling has long been rooted in our justice system and it will take more than one ruling to weed it out.
ReplyDeleteA huge part of the mass incarceration issue is the ways that laws are skewed to be more detrimental to minorities. A widely used example is the crack vs. cocaine debate. The penalties for crack (used more heavily by african americans and other minorities) are disproportionately higher than the penalties for cocaine (used more heavily by upper class whites) despite the fact that they are derivatives of the same drug. These disparities were written into law specifically to affect minorities, and keep them in jail.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, the fact that those incarcerated become disenfranchised is an issue. With such a huge portion of black men at risk for being incarcerated in their lives (1 in 3 is a HUGE proportion), a large proportion of the African American voter base is taken away. This puts blacks at a disadvantage as a group, not just individually, and holds them back in every aspect.
I understand Alexander’s argument and I would agree that the colorblind ideology has been a contributor to the increasing number of incarcerations in the African American community.
ReplyDeleteColorblindness is the dominant lens through which whites understand contemporary race relations. It is clear (or maybe not) that it allows for ideas such as individuals being responsible for their own success/failure, and that mobility barrier have been removed, and the thought we live in this fair and just world. With this in mind, we can see how individuals can be blamed for their own drug consumption and criminalized as a result. We forget, as Alex points out, even if these individuals are released, upon returning to civilian life, there is not much they can do as far as job opportunities, civic engagement, or even in finding housing. We have put so many restrictions on those who have been incarcerated and on top blame them for being homeless, unemployed, and in turn ignore the institutional barriers in place to keep this cycle going.
I’ve read excerpts of Michelle Alexander’s book and would highly suggest it, maybe after fall break.