New Jim Crow Thesis

Michelle Alexander’s book, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”, essentially analyzes the United States criminal justice system. The main thesis/argument of her analysis is that mass incarceration constitutes a new system of racial oppression that is similar to slavery and the original Jim Crow. Furthermore, she claims that mass incarceration has had a profound impact on how criminal justice issues are interpreted today. She also argues that individuals who have fallen victim to mass incarceration are part of a new racial caste. Prior to reading the entirety of the book, I thought she would thoroughly discuss how each and every minority is affected by mass incarceration; however, her analysis only focuses on African Americans. She does
She made sure to reiterate that while Reagan and other Republicans were the sole initiators of this effort of stripping government aids, the Clinton administration absolutely plummeted public benefits. Clinton made sure to put a federal law ban on anyone with a drug conviction from getting SNAP (food stamps) or TANF, and also granted local authorities the power to refuse people with felonies public housing. In all, all these actions further explain the economic opportunities that are mostly stripped away from African Americans. The rest of the book entails the effects of the War on Drugs. I found it particularly interesting how the justice system/police have sought different ways to take people to jail based on hunches on drugs or using minor traffic violations as an excuse to stop motorists for drug investigations- even when there is no profound evidence that the motorist has engaged in a drug crime. Also, it was interesting to read how the Supreme Court (whose responsibility is to protect minorities from majoritarian democracy) has placed somewhat of an infringement on minorities fourth amendment