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
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
“This book argues that mass incarceration is, metaphorically, the New Jim Crow and that all those who care about social justice should… — 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
“History reveals that the seeds of the new system of control were planted well before the end of the Civil Rights Movement.… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“We can have no significant understanding of any culture unless we also know the silences that were intentionally created and guaranteed along… — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“Seeing race is not the problem. Refusing to care for the people we see is the problem.” — Michelle Alexander Copy Share Image
“In order to make this point, we need to talk about race openly and honestly. We must stop debating crime policy as… — 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
“The language of caste may well seem foreign or unfamiliar to some. Public discussions about racial caste in America are relatively rare.… — 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
“It is fair to say that we have witnessed an evolution in the United States from a racial caste system based entirely… — 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
