The Rebirth Of Caste By Michelle Alexander - 1744 Words

In Chapter, one The Rebirth of Caste examines the history of racial social control in the United States. Alexander refers to the shifting forms and habitual patterns of racial caste system. She vies that proponents of racial hierarchy have been able to guarantee its recurrence after effective ends following the end of slavery and the dismantling of the original Jim Crow. She describes the starting point of it all is to bring about the separation of the poor whites and blacks; creating a hierarchy in the United States social class. The author believes this is possible largely, by appealing to the biases and uncertainties of lower-class whites. This caste-based system has existed in three different forms: slavery, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration. Alexander’s important influence is to show how each of these forms was brought about deliberately and how, in its latest form of mass incarceration, the caste system continues to achieve its aims of segregation. Michelle Alexander begins chapter one with what amounts to a critical race summary of how African American were put into slavery by the political elites that made a separation of black and lower class whites after the Bacon Rebellion. After the Bacon rebellion plantation owners decided to ship in slaves from Africa instead of slaves or indentured servants from Europe because they thought that the African slaves would be less likely to form an alliance with the poor whites and the white indentured servants. SheShow MoreRelatedThe House I Live By Eugene Jarecki s The New Jim Crow1188 Words   |  5 Pagesracism are far behind us; however, the film The House I Live In, directed by Eugene Jarecki s, and the book The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander, state otherwise. Although the United States holds five percent of the world’s population, it is responsible for a fourth of the world’s prisoners. More than the majority of these prisoners are of color. (Jarecki 2012; Alexa nder 2012, 189) Therefore, the statistics contradict the U.S.’s long-held ideal of freedom and equality. This large prisoner populationRead MoreAnalysis Of Michelle Alexander s The New Jim Crow 1058 Words   |  5 PagesMichelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow presents the reader with damning evidence of structural racism that still exists in United States Institutions. Michelle Alexander is an associate professor at Stanford Law School, directed the Civil Rights Clinic, and served as the director of the Racial Justice Project for the ACLU of Northern California. This book was begging to be read. The New Jim Crow? There is a new Jim Crow? The book argues that mass incarceration is â€Å"a stunningly comprehensive and well-disguisedRead MoreThe Political And Economic Factors Of The War On Drugs872 Words   |  4 PagesAccording to Michelle Alexander, why and how has the â€Å"war on drugs† developed over the last 40 years? What are the main political and economi c factors that led to the war on drugs, and what are the main political and economic factors that shaped it as it developed over the last four decades? Draw on material from the Foner textbook chapters 25 through 28 to supplement Alexander’s discussion of the political and economic context. Many people in the United States believe that there is full equalityRead MoreThe New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration1239 Words   |  5 PagesIn 2013, Michelle Alexander published her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, hoping it served as a call to action. Immediately this book received a huge amount of attention because of the controversial topics presented. This book opened a lot of people’s eyes to the term colorblindness, a sociological perspective referring to the disregard of racial characteristics. There is no racial data or profiling, no classifications, and no categorizations or distinctionsRead MoreThe New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration Essay1401 Words   |  6 Pages Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, examines mass incarceration in the United States, why the criminal justice system works the way it does towards minorities, the detriments associated with mass in carceration as it relates to offenders, and much more. In the introduction of her book, Alexander immediately paints the harsh reality of mass incarceration with the story of Jarvious Cotton who is denied the right to vote among other rights becauseRead MoreMass Incarceration : A Small Look Into Our Predicament1942 Words   |  8 Pageshire out the vagrant workers to white employers to also pay off their sentence. This was essentially placing many African Americans into a sort of pseudo-slavery. Eventually these laws were overturned and the Civil Rights Act was enacted in 1866 (Alexander, 2010). This was allowed many of the citizens of the United States to continue to see African Americans as a lesser race which would become a big factor of the Jim Crow laws that would come along later in the country’s history. The next time weRead MoreThe New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration During The Age Of Colorblindness By Michelle Alexander1854 Words   |  8 Pagesof Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander published in 2012. The non-fiction book is 331 pages and features a forward by esteemed civil rights activist Dr. Cornel West. Alexander is civil rights lawyer who decided to write this book after dealing with young black felons restricted by the prison system. The book was a fascinating glimpse into the biases of the criminal justice system. The book is split into six riveting chapters. The initial chapter is titled â€Å"The Rebirth of Caste†. The thesis of thisRead MorePaulo Chavez s The Mis Education Of The Negro And Michelle Alexander s The New Jim Crow1955 Words   |  8 PagesCarter G. Woodson’s The Mis-Education of the Negro, and Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow all have arguments that coincide with one another and are very similar. They focus on oppression and how the oppressed must contribute to the change that must happen in order for them to evolve from being oppressed, the contribution of African Americans in changing the way that society views their cultural roles in the past, as well as the rebirth of the caste-like system in our country that has caused the incarceration