Michelle Alexander: The New Jim Crow

Posted on July 23, 2012

Have you heard about Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow?

From NPR: “‘People are swept into the criminal justice system — particularly in poor communities of color — at very early ages … typically for fairly minor, nonviolent crimes,’ [Michelle Alexander] tells Fresh Air‘s Dave Davies. ‘[The young black males are] shuttled into prisons, branded as criminals and felons, and then when they’re released, they’re relegated to a permanent second-class status, stripped of the very rights supposedly won in the civil rights movement — like the right to vote, the right to serve on juries, the right to be free of legal discrimination and employment, and access to education and public benefits. Many of the old forms of discrimination that we supposedly left behind during the Jim Crow era are suddenly legal again, once you’ve been branded a felon.’

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