In many large urban areas, the majority of working age African American men now have criminal records and are thus subject to… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
After the end of slavery, African-American men were arrested in mass, and they were arrested for extremely minor crimes like loitering, standing… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
We must build a movement for education, not incarceration. A movement for jobs, not jails. A movement that will end all forms… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Most new prison construction has occurred in predominately white, rural communities, and thus a new and bizarre form of segregation has emerged… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. In Washington,… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
About 70% of those released from prison return within a few years, and the majority of those who return in some states… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“One in three young African American men is currently under the control of the criminal justice system—in prison, in jail, on probation,… — michelle alexander Copy Share Image
When we pull back the curtain and take a look at what our 'colorblind' society creates without affirmative action, we see a… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
... as recently as the mid-1970s, the most well-respected criminologists were predicting that the prison system would soon fade away. Prison did… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“We could choose to be a nation that extends care, compassion, and concern to those who are locked up and locked out… — 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
“Few would guess that our prison population leaped from approximately 350,000 to 2.3 million in such a short period of time due… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“of the nearly 7.3 million people currently under correctional control, only 1.6 million are in prison.27 This caste system extends far beyond… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
In response to the advocacy of groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, most states adopted tougher laws to punish drunk driving. Numerous… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
For children, the era of mass incarceration has meant a tremendous amount of family separation, broken homes, poverty, and a far, far… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
What are people released from prison expected to do? How are they expected to survive? Can't get a job, locked out of… — 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
I have spent years representing victims of racial profiling and police brutality and investigating patterns of drug law enforcement in poor communities… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
For reasons that have stunningly little to do with crime or crime rates, we, as a nation, have chosen to lock up… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Many offenders are tracked for prison at early ages, labeled as criminals in their teen years, and then shuttled from their decrepit,… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“As a society, our decision to heap shame and contempt upon those who struggle and fail in a system designed to keep… — 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
