t
feels like it has taken me months to slog through this book.. What I
find hard to believe is that I finished it yesterday, Sunday May 31,
2020. There was an excellent Inside Story on AlJazeera yesterday which I
watched twice to make sure I had actually heard things right. I had
just finished a book that spent an amazing amount of time on the War on
Drugs, the incarceration of young black men and a culture of racism in
police departments. The female speaker talked about police departments
and need for change in the culture in them. And protests around the
United States were/are turning violent and the anger is
continuing.....in response to the death of a young black man who was
murdered by white cops. I am quite sure I have never had the timing of a
book coincide so perfectly with current events.
It has taken me so long to read it because it is hard to read. Not reading comprehension. This has more to do with the subject matter. It connected with some of the recent books I have read. Democracy in Chains, Waking up White are two that come immediately to mind. Oh yes, and The Color of the Law.
Michelle Alexander, who wrote The New Jim Crow, shares that incarceration is the New Jim Crow because it continues to be a system that controls young black men and disenfranchises them for their entire lives. African Americans have been in prison for 400 years, since the ancestors of those who are alive now were dragged from Africa to North America. The name of the prison has changed is all. First it was slavery, after at least two reinventions of itself, a racialized form of control, it is now the prison system.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who has thought about "prison reform". Really, for anyone. To get through all of it requires some commitment. (less)
It has taken me so long to read it because it is hard to read. Not reading comprehension. This has more to do with the subject matter. It connected with some of the recent books I have read. Democracy in Chains, Waking up White are two that come immediately to mind. Oh yes, and The Color of the Law.
Michelle Alexander, who wrote The New Jim Crow, shares that incarceration is the New Jim Crow because it continues to be a system that controls young black men and disenfranchises them for their entire lives. African Americans have been in prison for 400 years, since the ancestors of those who are alive now were dragged from Africa to North America. The name of the prison has changed is all. First it was slavery, after at least two reinventions of itself, a racialized form of control, it is now the prison system.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who has thought about "prison reform". Really, for anyone. To get through all of it requires some commitment. (less)
