This document summarizes key points from Michelle Alexander's book "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness". It notes that incarceration rates in the U.S. increased dramatically from 1980 to 2009, and that African Americans are incarcerated at six times the rate of whites. It then provides brief biographical information about Alexander and outlines some of the challenges and criticisms to her argument that the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a "new Jim Crow" system of racial control similar to the old Jim Crow laws.

1. Table 1
U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States:2012
Prison and Jail Rates
Rate in 1980 Prison Jail
182,288 319,598
Rate in 2009 Prison Jail
760,400 1,524,513
Notes: African Americans are incarcerated six times more than
Whites. African Americans make up about 1 million of the nearly 2 million
plus incarcerated in America today.

2. THE NEW JIM CROW: MASS INCARCERATION
IN THE AGE OF COLORBLINDNESS

3. -Associate Professor
of Law at Ohio State
University
-Education at
Vanderbilt University
and Stanford
University
-Focus- Civil Rights
and Liberties and
Criminal Law
-Clerk for Justice
Blackmun on the
United States
Supreme Court and
Chief Judge Mikva
on the United State
Court of Appeals for
the D.C. Circuit.
MASS INCARCERATION

4. CHALLENGES
1. Michelle Alexander is paranoid concerning racism
2. Can Alexander actually prove that the incarceration system is the new
Jim Crow?
3. Jim Crow is dead.
4. Did the idea of Jim Crow come into being when the settlers came to
“America” and labeled the First Inhabitants “savages”?
5. Racism is gone. It’s 2013 (assumptions)
6. Are some laws/acts coded for a specific ethnicity or are the laws a
warning for all?
7. Is the system (jails and prisons/laws) targeting African Americans
more than other races?

5. HISTORICAL CHALLENGES
1. Racism in the beginning (Settlers and Native Americans)
2. Laws and Legislatures (Section I: Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have
been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place
subject to their jurisdiction.
Section II:“Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.” )
3. Law Enforcers
4. Old Jim Crow
5.Stereotypes
6. The Mindset of a people

6. CHALLENGES AND EXAMPLES
These challenges range from racism, lawmakers, Jim Crow,
stereotypes, and law enforcement.
What are some examples of these problems?
• Racism?
• Law enforcement and law makers?
• Jim Crow New or old?
• Stereotypes?
• Law enforcement?
• Examples.

7. FACES OF OPPRESSION
There are 5 faces of oppression but the three that I want to hit
on which are more dominant in this case are powerlessness,
cultural imperialism, and marginalization. These are the three
that see tying to the listed issues more than anything.
What are these and what do they mean?
• Powerlessness- What is happening is that some people have
power while some others do not.
• Cultural imperialism- this involves taking the culture of the
ruling class and establishing it at the norm. Haven’t we done
this before?
• Marginalization- This is the act of relegating or confronting a
group of people to a lower social standing or outer limit or
edge of society.

8. EXAMPLES OF FACES OF OPPRESSION?
• Powerlessness. What I think of when I see this are the lower class
black males who are being incarcerated at ridiculous rates, exposure
to disrespectful treatment because of lowered status. Example, pulled
over because of being stereotyped then you have searching the
vehicle finding a little marijuana or something and boom jail time
felony no rights, that is powerlessness to me.
• Cultural Imperialism. This is where we establish culture of ruling
class as a norm. Examples of this are things such as the Jefferson
writing where it was made whites above all and African’s weren’t even
considered people, cultural imperialism at its finest. Once a norm is
established it is hard to change.
• Marginalization. This happens when we put people at lower social
standing. Examples, Government housing.

9. THE NEW JIM CROW: FACT OR FICTION?
FACT:
Throughout the different challenges such as racism, slavery,
lawmakers and law enforcement throughout all of these stereotypes
and all issues lead to one definition, oppression. We are making these
people powerless, marginalizing them and using cultural imperialism
to keep the white race at the top. We have to change this issue that
way we can be true to our “by the people for the people” mentality that
we were supposed to be founded on.
What do you think?

10. THE NEW JIM CROW: MASS INCARCERATION
IN THE AGE OF COLORBLINDNESS