We are in a social and political context in which the norm is to punish poor folks of color rather than to… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
People charged with drug offenses, though, are typically poor people of color. They are routinely charged with felonies and sent to prison. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
There is a system of racial and social control in communities of color across America. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Nothing has contributed more to the systematic mass incarceration of people of color in the United States than the War on Drugs — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
If you ask for good schools, you aren't likely to get them. If you ask for jobs or economic investment, you won't… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The fact that people of all colors have been ensnared by the drug war helps to preserve the system as a whole… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Of course it would make far more sense to invest in education and job creation in poor communities of color, rather than… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Most Americans violate drug laws in their lifetime, but the enemy in this war has been racially defined. Not by accident, the… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
If we want to do more than just end mass incarceration—if we want to put an end to the history of racial… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The mass incarceration of poor people of color, particularly black men, has emerged as a new caste system, one specifically designed to… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Mass incarceration has become normalized in the United States. Poor folks of color are shuttled from decrepit, underfunded schools to brand new,… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Many people don't realize that financial incentives have been built into the drug war that guarantee that law enforcement will continue to… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
I think this mythology - that we're all beyond race, of course our police officers aren't racist, of course our politicians don't… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
What has changed since the collapse of Jim Crow has less to do with the basic structure of our society than with… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Certainly youth of color, particularly those in ghetto communities, find themselves born into the cage. They are born into a community in… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The education justice movement and the prison justice movement have been operating separately in many places as though they're in silos. But… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The mythology around colorblindness leads people to imagine that if poor kids of color are failing or getting locked up in large… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The system functioned relatively automatically, and the prevailing system of racial meanings, identities, and ideologies already seemed natural. Ninety percent of those… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
If you ask for good schools, you aren't likely to get them. If you ask for jobs or economic investment, you won't get that… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share
The uncomfortable reality we must face is that California, like the nation as a whole, has treated generations of African Americans and Latinos as… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share
“Seeing race is not the problem. Refusing to care for the people we see is the problem. The fact that the meaning of race… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share
Since the nations founding, African Americans repeatedly have been controlled through institutions such as slavery and Jim Crow, which appear to die but then… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share
“Felon disenfranchisement laws have been more effective in eliminating black voters in the age of mass incarceration than they were under Jim Crow…These figures… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share
“That was King’s dream—a society that is capable of seeing each of us, as we are, with love. That is a goal worth fighting… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share
Activists take the risks, while advocates are professional tinkerers with the system. What's necessary is for those who are advocates to support those who… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share
“Civil rights protests were frequently depicted as criminal rather than political in nature, and federal courts were accused of excessive “lenience” toward lawlessness, thereby… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share
We cannot 'fix' the police without a revolution of values and radical change to the basic structure of our society. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share
If we continue to tell ourselves the popular myths about racial progress or, worse yet, if we say to ourselves that the problem of… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share
The mass incarceration of poor people of color, particularly black men, has emerged as a new caste system, one specifically designed to address the… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share
“[T]he slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery. —W.E.B Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share
If you take into account prisoners, a large majority of African American men in some urban areas, like Chicago, have been labeled felons for… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share
“A new civil rights movement cannot be organized around the relics of the earlier system of control if it is to address meaningfully the… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share
The rules and reasons the political system employs to enforce status relations of any kind, including racial hierarchy, evolve and change as they are… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share
