Black Quotes by Michelle Alexander

Nationwide, 1 in 3 black men can expect to serve time behind bars, but the rates are far higher in segregated and…

— Michelle Alexander

Now that's hard for many people to believe, given that the media image of a drug dealer is a black kid standing…

— Michelle Alexander

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

In this country, we force millions of people - who are largely black and brown - into a permanent second-class status simply…

— Michelle Alexander

Because standard unemployment reports continue to exclude prisoners, we have been treated to a highly misleading picture of black unemployment.

— Michelle Alexander

Incarceration rates - especially black incarceration rates - have soared regardless of whether crime has been going up or down in any…

— Michelle Alexander

Black men with criminal records are the most severely disadvantaged group in the labor market.

— Michelle Alexander

Incarceration rates, especially black incarceration rates, have soared regardless of whether crime is going up or down in any given community or…

— Michelle Alexander

As a criminal you have scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a black man living in Alabama at the height…

— Michelle Alexander

No other country in the world imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities. The United States imprisons a larger percentage…

— Michelle Alexander

Voting rights expert and legal scholar Pam Karlan reports that as of 2004, there were more black men disenfranchised than in 1870,…

— Michelle Alexander

Plenty of drug dealing does happen in the 'hood, but it happens everywhere else in America as well. In fact, some studies…

— Michelle Alexander

Millions of people are unable to vote due to felony convictions with the highest rates among black men. People in prison are…

— 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 fate of millions of people—indeed the future of the black community itself—may depend on the willingness of those who care about…

— Michelle Alexander

Black men in ghetto communities (and many who live in middle class communities) are targeted by the police at early ages, often…

— Michelle Alexander

Arguably the most important parallel between mass incarceration and Jim Crow is that both have served to define the meaning and significance…

— Michelle Alexander

Once you're labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination - employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial…

— Michelle Alexander

For those who say that the war on drugs and the system of mass incarceration really isn't about race, I say there…

— Michelle Alexander

When young black men reach a certain age - whether or not there is incarceration in their families - they themselves are…

— Michelle Alexander

Of course in this age of colorblindness, a time when we have supposedly moved "beyond race," we as a nation would feel…

— Michelle Alexander

The system functioned relatively automatically, and the prevailing system of racial meanings, identities, and ideologies already seemed natural. Ninety percent of those…

— Michelle Alexander

Nationwide about 1 in 7 black men are temporarily or permanently disenfranchised due to felon disenfranchisement laws.

— Michelle Alexander

The fact that more than half of the young black men in any large American city are currently under the control of…

— Michelle Alexander

The mass incarceration of poor people of color, particularly black men, has emerged as a new caste system, one specifically designed to…

— Michelle Alexander

The War on Drugs, cloaked in race-neutral language, offered whites opposed to racial reform a unique opportunity to express their hostility toward…

— Michelle Alexander

Eventually [black men] are arrested, whether they've committed any serious crime or not, and branded criminals or felons for life. Upon release,…

— Michelle Alexander

For the rest of their lives, [black men] can be denied the right to vote, automatically excluded from juries, and legally discriminated…

— Michelle Alexander

One study conducted in Washington, D.C. indicated that 3 out of 4 black men, and nearly all those living in the poorest…

— Michelle Alexander

The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. In Washington,…

— Michelle Alexander