In The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness‚ Michelle Alexander examines our current criminal justice system and the mass incarceration of African Americans in the United States. She argues that the War on Drugs and drug offense convictions are the single most compelling cause for the magnitude of people of color behind bars. Prisons are used as a system of racial and social control that function in the same way as Jim Crow laws. It is no longer legal to discriminate against
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States passed various laws of racial segregation‚ focused against the black sectors. By the turn of the century those laws were called the Jim Crow laws‚ both north and south. Between the 1880s and the 1960s the laws expanded. Jim Crow‚ within the context of this unit‚ refers to the official discrimination against or segregation of African Americans. Jim Crow legislation was officially instituted by the southern states when racial attitudes hardened in the 1890’s‚ shortly
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the idea of “separate but equal.” This idea came along by the Supreme Court by a certain incidence that occurred in 1892. It took place in a train when an African-American passenger that went along with the name of‚ Homer Plessy denied to sit in a Jim Crow car (made specifically for the color). Homer Plessy was seven/eighths white and only one/eighth black‚ but due to the Louisiana law this meant he was still treated as an African-American‚ thus required to sit in a car specifically for the “colored
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Furthermore‚ according to the U.S Census‚ 27% of Black or African American households are living below poverty‚ while only 10% of White households are living below poverty today.
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suffering‚ or diminishing the sum of happiness." This quote by suffragist and philanthropist Clara Barton so eloquently describes the issues within the United States prison system and its desperate need to for reformation. Chapter four of The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander brought forth the gaspingly oppressive sector of prison (via the judicial branch). Alexander illuminated the reader to the realities of the United States prison system and the covert nuances of racism‚ discrimination‚ and the
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ever they went.The white community abused of their power and treated them as animals. In consequence of this‚ Richard Wright created Native Son. The book is about of all of the Biggers Richard Wright had encountered when he lived in Chicago and Bigger represented all of them and how being a black person meant in this time. While many others wouldn’t agreed of Bigger’s action‚ Richard Wright‚ the author of Native Son illustrates the struggles of a
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The autobiography Black Boy‚ written by Richard Wright‚ displays Wright’s thoughts on society during the 1940s. His resistance towards black mistreatment‚ and his constant yearning for equality shows Wright’s hatred of racist mistreatment. However‚ as we approach the mid 2000s‚ the fight for equality has created many equal opportunities for African Americans. Wright was born before the civil rights movement and after the civil war. If Richard Wright were writing his autobiography today in 2017‚ he
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Many things were being censored from them such as Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial discrimination in the Southern part of the United States. Dr. Martin King Jr was one of the major leaders of the Civil rights movement‚ which was a mass movement to protect African Americans
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Tori Palfey 3/31/14 Eng.9H/Cummings/p.4 Essay #3 “You know if we were to look back and how we were in 1955 living in Jim Crow‚ living in segregation‚ living in segregated schools‚ it ’s hard to believe that it was America‚ but it really was.” -Anna Deavere Smith. This quote was referring to the ghastly Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws arose in the south in 1890 and restricted the way African Americans could participate in society (cliffnotes.com p.1). These laws had a vast influence on the
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Times have changed since the Jim Crow Laws less than a century ago. In his autobiography‚ Black Boy‚ Richard Wright described his experience as a young black male living in the Jim Crow South from 1908 to 1927 . He explained how horribly people of African American descent were treated and his plans to escape as soon as possible. Many years have passed since then and the South is different now. If Wright was living as a young black boy in 2018‚ he would write about the election of Barack Obama‚ the
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