The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. In Washington,… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Most new prison construction has occurred in predominately white, rural communities, and thus a new and bizarre form of segregation has emerged… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
We must build a movement for education, not incarceration. A movement for jobs, not jails. A movement that will end all forms… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
After the end of slavery, African-American men were arrested in mass, and they were arrested for extremely minor crimes like loitering, standing… — 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
Some prison officials are determined to keep the people they lock in cages as ignorant as possible about the racial, social, and… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
What defenders of the system typically fail to acknowledge is that the reason violent offenders comprise a fairly large percentage of the… — 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 there are more African-Americans under correctional control, in prison or jail, on probation or parole, than were enslaved in 1850, a… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Today there are more African-Americans under correctional control — in prison or jail, on probation or parole — than were enslaved in… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Mandatory minimum sentences give no discretion to judges about the amount of time that the person should receive once a guilty verdict… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
We would never throw up our hands and say to those white boys - well, too bad, if you had just stayed… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“The percentage of drug arrests that result in prison sentences (rather than dismissal, community service, or probation) has quadrupled, resulting in a… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
In a growing number of states, you're actually expected to pay back the costs of your imprisonment. Paying back all these fees,… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
When young black men reach a certain age - whether or not there is incarceration in their families - they themselves are… — 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
Now that private prison companies have found that they can make a killing on mass incarceration, these private prison companies are now… — 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
The war on drugs has been the engine of mass incarceration. Drug convictions alone constituted about two-thirds of the increase in the… — 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
If you ask for good schools, you aren't likely to get them. If you ask for jobs or economic investment, you won't… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Millions of people are unable to vote due to felony convictions with the highest rates among black men. People in prison are… — 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
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
“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
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
“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
“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
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
“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
We cannot 'fix' the police without a revolution of values and radical change to the basic structure of our society. — Michelle Alexander Copy Share
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
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
“[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
If you take into account prisoners, a large majority of African American men in some urban areas, like Chicago, have been labeled felons for… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share
“A new civil rights movement cannot be organized around the relics of the earlier system of control if it is to address meaningfully the… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share
The rules and reasons the political system employs to enforce status relations of any kind, including racial hierarchy, evolve and change as they are… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share
