The system of mass incarceration depends almost entirely on the cooperation of those it seeks to control. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Mass incarceration is a massive system of racial and social control. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
We need transformational change of our criminal justice system - not just, you know, a handful of consent decrees or policy reforms. — 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
The success of the few does not excuse the caste-like system that exists for many. In fact, black exceptionalism - the high-profile,… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Our criminal-justice system has for decades been infected with a mindset that views black boys and men in particular as a problem… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Some of our system of mass incarceration really has to be traced back to the law-and-order movement that began in the 1950s,… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
People are swept into the criminal justice system - particularly in poor communities of color - at very early ages... typically for… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Activists take the risks, while advocates are professional tinkerers with the system. What's necessary is for those who are advocates to support… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Surely, we've got a way that we can tinker with this system that shuttles our children from decrepit, underfunded schools to brand-new… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Our entire political system is financed by wealthy private interests buying politicians and making sure the rules are written in their favor. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
It is no longer socially permissible to use race, explicitly, as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. So we don't.… — 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
