Michelle Alexander

We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it

— Michelle Alexander

“The more things change, the more they remain the same.”

— Michelle Alexander

I do believe that something akin to a racial caste system is alive and well in America.

— Michelle Alexander

I say we haven't ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.

— Michelle Alexander

“Before democracy, chattel slavery in America was born”

— Michelle Alexander

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

— Michelle Alexander

The mass criminalization of white men would disturb us to the core.

— Michelle Alexander

Slavery ended, but the idea of race lived on.

— Michelle Alexander

The system of mass incarceration depends almost entirely on the cooperation of those it seeks to control.

— Michelle Alexander

Most people seem to assume that this dramatic surge in imprisonment was due to a corresponding surge in crime, particularly violent crime.

— Michelle Alexander

“We can have no significant understanding of any culture unless we also know the silences that were intentionally created and guaranteed along…

— Michelle Alexander

In this era of mass incarceration, the police shouldn't be trusted any more than any other witness, perhaps less so.

— Michelle Alexander

Many of the old forms of discrimination that we supposedly left behind during the Jim Crow era are suddenly legal again, once…

— Michelle Alexander

“That was King’s dream—a society that is capable of seeing each of us, as we are, with love. That is a goal…

— Michelle Alexander

We must muster the courage, we must find the will, we must do what is necessary to build a truly transformative movement…

— Michelle Alexander

I no longer believe that we can 'fix' the police, as though the police are anything other than a mirror reflecting back…

— Michelle Alexander

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

The war on drugs has been the engine of mass incarceration. Drug convictions alone constituted about two-thirds of the increase in the…

— Michelle Alexander

“Ex-offenders are expected to pay fines and court costs, and submit paperwork to multiple agencies in an effort to win back a…

— Michelle Alexander

The United States does have the highest rate of incarceration in the world dwarfing the rates of even highly repressive regimes like…

— Michelle Alexander

Since the nations founding, African Americans repeatedly have been controlled through institutions such as slavery and Jim Crow, which appear to die…

— Michelle Alexander

The problem that we face as civil rights lawyers and advocates is that its extremely difficult to prove race discrimination because the…

— Michelle Alexander

If everyone charged with crimes suddenly exercised his constitutional rights, there would not be enough judges, lawyers, or prison cells to deal…

— Michelle Alexander

I believe the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as a very large swath of the American population, really wants to imagine that…

— Michelle Alexander

In a growing number of states, you're actually expected to pay back the costs of your imprisonment. Paying back all these fees,…

— Michelle Alexander

Yet far from putting any meaningful constraints on law enforcement in this war, the U.S. Supreme Court has given the police license…

— Michelle Alexander

“Back there, before Jim Crow, before the invention of the Negro or the white man or the words and concepts to describe…

— Michelle Alexander

“The percentage of drug arrests that result in prison sentences (rather than dismissal, community service, or probation) has quadrupled, resulting in a…

— Michelle Alexander

“Despite claims that these radical policy changes were driven by fiscal conservatism...the reality is that government was not reducing the amount of…

— Michelle Alexander

I hope that we will also take seriously the necessity of building alternative parties, and do that work in our communities of…

— Michelle Alexander

More than 2 million people found themselves behind bars at the turn of the twenty-first century, and millions more were relegated to…

— Michelle Alexander

We would never throw up our hands and say to those white boys - well, too bad, if you had just stayed…

— Michelle Alexander

“What this book intended to do - the only thing it is intended to do - is to stimulate a much-needed conversation…

— Michelle Alexander

“Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia prohibit inmates from voting while incarcerated for a felony offense. Only two states - Maine…

— Michelle Alexander

“The notion that racial caste systems are necessarily predicated on a desire to harm other racial groups, and that racial hostility is…

— Michelle Alexander

“It is not possible to write a relatively short book that explores all aspects of the phenomenon of mass incarceration and its…

— Michelle Alexander

“Even beyond private prison companies, a whole range of prison profiteers must be reckoned with if mass incarceration is to be undone,…

— Michelle Alexander

“To great effect, Reagan echoed white frustration in race-neutral terms through implicit racial appeals. His 'color-blind' rhetoric on crime, welfare, taxes, and…

— Michelle Alexander

“If the movement that emerges to challenge mass incarceration fails to confront squarely the critical role of race in the basic structure…

— Michelle Alexander

“In his campaign for the presidency, Reagan mastered the "excision of the language of race from conservative public discourse"… For example, when…

— Michelle Alexander