There is a system of racial and social control in communities of color across America. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Nationwide, 1 in 3 black men can expect to serve time behind bars, but the rates are far higher in segregated and… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Incarceration rates, especially black incarceration rates, have soared regardless of whether crime is going up or down in any given community or… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Incarceration rates - especially black incarceration rates - have soared regardless of whether crime has been going up or down in any… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Of course it would make far more sense to invest in education and job creation in poor communities of color, rather than… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
We're living in a time when so many of the civil rights and social justice organizations are run by lawyers and policy… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Private prison companies are now listed on the New York Stock exchange and are doing quite well in a time of economic… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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
Black men in ghetto communities (and many who live in middle class communities) are targeted by the police at early ages, often… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
If the drug war was waged in those communities it would spark such outrage that the war would end overnight. This literal… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Of course, no one should be trapped in bad schools or bad neighborhoods. No one. But I think we need to be… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
We have now spent 1 trillion dollars waging the drug war since it began. A trillion. Those funds could have been used… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The prison-industrial complex employs millions of people directly and indirectly. Judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, prison guards, construction companies that build prisons, police,… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Kids are growing up in communities in which they see their loved ones cycling in and out of prison and in which… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
I think that we need to begin talking about what does it mean to create these safe spaces in our communities, to… — 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
Certainly youth of color, particularly those in ghetto communities, find themselves born into the cage. They are born into a community in… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
We can't just assume that this resistance is going to produce the kinds of candidates or the kinds of parties that will… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Many people don't realize that financial incentives have been built into the drug war that guarantee that law enforcement will continue to… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Most Americans violate drug laws in their lifetime, but the enemy in this war has been racially defined. Not by accident, the… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
My own view - and I'm very open to hearing other perspectives - is that this movement-building needs to begin at home,… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
We're foolish if we think we're going to end mass incarceration unless we are willing to deal with the reality that huge… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
I hope that we will also take seriously the necessity of building alternative parties, and do that work in our communities of… — 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
![“[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 For” quote by Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/fdb/michelle-alexander-750_time_t-he-slave-went-free-stood-a-brief-momen_96485.jpg)