The uncomfortable reality we must face is that California, like the nation as a whole, has treated generations of African Americans and… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Since the nations founding, African Americans repeatedly have been controlled through institutions such as slavery and Jim Crow, which appear to die… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
There are more African Americans under correctional control, in prison or jail, on probation or parole, than were enslaved in 1850 a… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“While the Reconstruction Era was fraught with corruption and arguably doomed by the lack of land reform, the sweeping economic and political… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“Although it is common to think of Jim Crow as an explicitly race-based system, in fact a number of the key policies… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The backlash against gains of African Americans in the Reconstruction Era was swift and severe. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“In the era of colorblindness, it is no longer socially permissible to use race, explicitly, as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The sprinkling of people of color through elite institutions in the United States, due to affirmative action policies and the limited progress… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“Segregation laws were proposed as part of a deliberate effort to drive a wedge between poor whites and African Americans. These discriminatory… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“Human Rights Watch reported in 2000 that, in seven states, African Americans constitute 80 to 90 percent of all drug offenders sent… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“A survey was conducted in 1995 asking the following question: “Would you close your eyes for a second, envision a drug user,… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“The general public typically traces the death of Jim Crow to Brown v. Board of Education, although the institution was showing signs… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“Vagrancy laws and other laws defining activities such as "mischief" and "insulting gestures" as crimes were enforced vigorously against blacks. The aggressive… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The very rights that we supposedly won for African Americans in the civil rights movement no longer exist for those labeled felons.… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“Segregation laws were proposed as part of a deliberate effort to drive a wedge between poor whites and African Americans. These discriminatory… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“The state of Mississippi eventually moved from hiring convict labor to organizing its own convict labor camp, known as Parchman Farm. It… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“The fact that some African Americans have experienced great success in recent years does not mean that something akin to a racial… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“The temptation is to insist that black men 'choose' to be criminals; the system does not make them criminals, at least not… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all the ways that it was once legal to discriminate against… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Globalization and deindustrialization affected workers of all colors but hit African Americans particularly hard. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“The radical philosophy offered, for many African Americans, the most promise. It was predicated on a searing critique of large corporations, particularly… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“Merely reducing sentence length, by itself, does not disturb the basic architecture of the New Jim Crow. So long as large numbers… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“African Americans are not significantly more likely to use or sell prohibited drugs than whites, but they are made criminals at drastically… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The criminal justice system was strategically employed to force African Americans back into a system of extreme repression and control, a tactic… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“The language of caste may well seem foreign or unfamiliar to some. Public discussions about racial caste in America are relatively rare.… — 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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
We cannot 'fix' the police without a revolution of values and radical change to the basic structure of our society. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
“[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 Image
