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
Most people seem to assume that this dramatic surge in imprisonment was due to a corresponding surge in crime, particularly violent crime. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Of course in this age of colorblindness, a time when we have supposedly moved "beyond race," we as a nation would feel… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Private landlords as well as public landlords are free to discriminate against people with criminal records for the rest of their lives.… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
I think it's critically important that the people who have been most harmed by mass incarceration, by mass deportation, by neoliberalism, by… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
In fact, in some countries there are actually voting drives conducted in prison! But here in the U.S., we seem to take… — 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
Prosecutors frequently overcharge, load up charges on individual defendants, knowing that three strikes laws and harsh mandatory minimum sentences will force people… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Bill Clinton championed discriminatory laws against formerly incarcerated people that have kept millions of Americans locked in a cycle of poverty and… — 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
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 Copy Share Image
More than 2 million people found themselves behind bars at the turn of the twenty-first century, and millions more were relegated to… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
In the war on drugs, state and state law enforcement agencies have been rewarded in cash by the federal government - through… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
People charged with drug offenses, though, are typically poor people of color. They are routinely charged with felonies and sent to prison. — 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
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
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
For reasons that have stunningly little to do with crime or crime rates, we, as a nation, have chosen to lock up… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
In a sense, mass incarceration has emerged as a far more extreme form of physical and residential segregation than Jim Crow segregation.… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Public housing officials are free to discriminate against you on the basis of criminal records, including arrest records. And so, you know,… — 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
Thousands of people plead guilty to crimes every year in the United States because they know that the odds of a jury's… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Discrimination in public benefits is also perfectly legal. Under federal law, people convicted of drug felonies are deemed ineligible even for food… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
In this country, we force millions of people - who are largely black and brown - into a permanent second-class status simply… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
More than 90 percent of criminal cases are never tried before a jury. Most people charged with crimes forfeit their constitutional rights… — 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
