Community 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

There is a system of racial and social control in communities of color across America.

— 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

Private prison companies are now listed on the New York Stock exchange and are doing quite well in a time of economic…

— 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

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

— 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

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

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

If the drug war was waged in those communities it would spark such outrage that the war would end overnight. This literal…

— Michelle Alexander

Of course it would make far more sense to invest in education and job creation in poor communities of color, rather than…

— Michelle Alexander

I think that we need to begin talking about what does it mean to create these safe spaces in our communities, to…

— Michelle Alexander

Certainly youth of color, particularly those in ghetto communities, find themselves born into the cage. They are born into a community in…

— Michelle Alexander

We have now spent 1 trillion dollars waging the drug war since it began. A trillion. Those funds could have been used…

— 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

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

My own view - and I'm very open to hearing other perspectives - is that this movement-building needs to begin at home,…

— 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

Of course, no one should be trapped in bad schools or bad neighborhoods. No one. But I think we need to be…

— Michelle Alexander

Most Americans violate drug laws in their lifetime, but the enemy in this war has been racially defined. Not by accident, the…

— Michelle Alexander

In many large urban areas, the majority of working age African American men now have criminal records and are thus subject to…

— Michelle Alexander

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

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

Kids are growing up in communities in which they see their loved ones cycling in and out of prison and in which…

— Michelle Alexander