We have to stop thinking of criminals as 'them' and admit to ourselves, 'There but for the grace of God go I.' — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Once you have been branded a criminal or felon, you are typically trapped for life. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
It's not crime that makes us more punitive in the United States. It's the way we respond to crime and how we… — 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
The United States does have the highest rate of incarceration in the world dwarfing the rates of even highly repressive regimes like… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
As a criminal you have scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a black man living in Alabama at the height… — 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
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 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
I am a criminal. Coming to terms with this aspect of my identity has helped me to see more clearly - with… — 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 wave of punitiveness that washed over the United States with the rise of the drug war and the get tough movement… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Once you're labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination - employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial… — 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
I think it's critically important for people to understand that this system of mass incarceration governs not just those who find themselves… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Yet far from putting any meaningful constraints on law enforcement in this war, the U.S. Supreme Court has given the police license… — 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
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
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 genius of the current caste system, and what most distinguishes it from its predecessors, is that it appears voluntary. People choose… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“Criminals, it turns out, are the one social group in America we have permission to hate. In 'colorblind' America, criminals are the… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“The notion that a vast gulf exists between "criminals" and those of us who have never served time in prison is a… — 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
Public housing projects as well as private landlords are free to deny housing to people with criminal records. In fact, you don't… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Many offenders are tracked for prison at early ages, labeled as criminals in their teen years, and then shuttled from their decrepit,… — 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
“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
Arguably the most important parallel between mass incarceration and Jim Crow is that both have served to define the meaning and significance… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
For African American children, in particular, the odds are extremely high that they will have a parent or loved one, a relative,… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
All people make mistakes. All of us are sinners. All of us are criminals. All of us violate the law at some… — 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
![“Eventually [black men] are arrested, whether they've committed any serious crime or not, and branded criminals or felons for life. Upon release, they're ushered into a parallel social universe in which the civil and human rights supposedly won during the Civil Rights Movement no longer apply to…” quote by Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/b57/michelle-alexander-750_arrested_eventually-black-men-are-arrested-whethe_348081.jpg)
![“[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)