“Although a million black men can be found in prisons and jails, public acknowledgment of the role of the criminal justice system… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
It is no longer socially permissible to use race, explicitly, as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. So we don't.… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“One in three young African American men is currently under the control of the criminal justice system—in prison, in jail, on probation,… — michelle alexander Copy Share Image
The fact that our legal system has become so tolerant of police lying indicates how corrupted our criminal justice system has become… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
We need transformational change of our criminal justice system - not just, you know, a handful of consent decrees or policy reforms. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The education justice movement and the prison justice movement have been operating separately in many places as though they're in silos. But… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“What this book intended to do - the only thing it is intended to do - is to stimulate a much-needed conversation… — 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 Supreme Court has made it nearly impossible to prove race discrimination in the criminal justice system. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“The process occurs in two stages. The first step is to grant law enforcement officials extraordinary discretion regarding whom to stop, search,… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
People are swept into the criminal justice system - particularly in poor communities of color - at very early ages... typically for… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“Saying mass incarceration is an abysmal failure makes sense, though, only if one assumes that the criminal justice system is designed to… — 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
What has changed since the collapse of Jim Crow has less to do with the basic structure of our society than with… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The fact that more than half of the young black men in any large American city are currently under the control of… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“Those who have been swept within the criminal justice system know that the way the system actually works bears little resemblance to… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“It is not possible to write a relatively short book that explores all aspects of the phenomenon of mass incarceration and its… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“The critical point is that thousands of people are swept into the criminal justice system every year pursuant to the drug war… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
I think it's important to encourage young people to tell their own stories and to speak openly about their own experiences with… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“The real point here, however, is not that innocent people are locked up. That has been true since penitentiaries first opened in… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“As law enforcement budgets exploded, so did prison and jail populations. In 1991, the Sentencing Project reported that the number of people… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
The nature of the criminal justice system has changed. It is no longer primarily concerned with the prevention and punishment of crime,… — 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
“Racial violence has been rationalized, legitimated, and channeled through our criminal justice system; it is expressed as police brutality, solitary confinement, and… — 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
