“Seeing race is not the problem. Refusing to care for the people we see is the problem.” — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
In the 'era of colorblindness,' there's a nearly fanatical desire to cling to the myth that we, as a nation, have 'moved… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
It was because of race that we didnt care much what happened to those people and imagined the worst possible things about… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
A massive new penal system has emerged in the past few decades - a penal system unprecedented in world history. It is… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Voting rights expert and legal scholar Pam Karlan reports that as of 2004, there were more black men disenfranchised than in 1870,… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
Like Jim Crow (and slavery), mass incarceration operates as a tightly networked system of laws, policies, customs, and institutions that operate collectively… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
We have avoided in recent years talking openly and honestly about race out of fear that it will alienate and polarize. In… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
I believe the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as a very large swath of the American population, really wants to imagine that… — 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
The War on Drugs, cloaked in race-neutral language, offered whites opposed to racial reform a unique opportunity to express their hostility toward… — 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
In 2004, there were more black men disenfranchised than in 1870 - the year the 15th Amendment was ratified, prohibiting laws that… — 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… — 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
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
I think this mythology - that we're all beyond race, of course our police officers aren't racist, of course our politicians don't… — 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
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
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
The system functioned relatively automatically, and the prevailing system of racial meanings, identities, and ideologies already seemed natural. Ninety percent of those… — 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
A new race-neutral language was developed for appealing to old racist sentiments, a language accompanied by a political movement that succeeded in… — 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… — 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
