---
title: "4 Trapped Quotes By Michelle Alexander"
description: "4 Trapped quotes by Michelle Alexander. Plus more from Michelle Alexander and more Trapped sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/024/michelle-alexander-750_bars_there-can-be-many-bars-wires-that-keep-a_396775.png"
---

> [There can be many bars, wires that keep a person trapped. All of them don't have to have been created for the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-alexander/there-can-be-many-bars-wires-that-keep-a-person-trapped-all-of-them/)

[Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-alexander/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/024/michelle-alexander-750_bars_there-can-be-many-bars-wires-that-keep-a_396775.png)

> [Certainly youth of color, particularly those in ghetto communities, find themselves born into the cage. They are born into a community in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-alexander/certainly-youth-of-color-particularly-those-in-ghetto-communities/)

[Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-alexander/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/30d/michelle-alexander-750_age_certainly-youth-of-color-particularly-th_845127.jpg)

> [Once you have been branded a criminal or felon, you are typically trapped for life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-alexander/once-you-have-been-branded-a-criminal-or-felon-you-are-typically/)

[Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-alexander/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8bd/michelle-alexander-750_branded_once-you-have-been-branded-a-criminal-or_1089687.png)

> [Of course, no one should be trapped in bad schools or bad neighborhoods. No one. But I think we need to be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-alexander/of-course-no-one-should-be-trapped-in-bad-schools-or-bad/)

[Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-alexander/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/37a/michelle-alexander-750_accepting_of-course-no-one-should-be-trapped-in-ba_2934887.jpg)

## Other authors on Trapped

## More by Michelle Alexander

> [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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-alexander/if-you-ask-for-good-schools-you-aren-t-likely-to-get-them-if-you-ask/)

[Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-alexander/)

> [The uncomfortable reality we must face is that California, like the nation as a whole, has treated generations of African Americans and Latinos as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-alexander/the-uncomfortable-reality-we-must-face-is-that-california-like-the/)

[Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-alexander/)

> [“Seeing race is not the problem. Refusing to care for the people we see is the problem. The fact that the meaning of race…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-alexander/seeing-race-is-not-the-problem-refusing-to-care-for-the-people-we-see/)

[Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-alexander/)

> [Since the nations founding, African Americans repeatedly have been controlled through institutions such as slavery and Jim Crow, which appear to die but then…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-alexander/since-the-nations-founding-african-americans-repeatedly-have-been/)

[Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-alexander/)

> [“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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-alexander/felon-disenfranchisement-laws-have-been-more-effective-in-eliminating/)

[Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-alexander/)

> [“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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-alexander/that-was-king-s-dream-a-society-that-is-capable-of-seeing-each-of-us/)

[Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-alexander/)

> [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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-alexander/activists-take-the-risks-while-advocates-are-professional-tinkerers/)

[Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-alexander/)

> [“Civil rights protests were frequently depicted as criminal rather than political in nature, and federal courts were accused of excessive “lenience” toward lawlessness, thereby…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-alexander/civil-rights-protests-were-frequently-depicted-as-criminal-rather/)

[Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-alexander/)

> [We cannot 'fix' the police without a revolution of values and radical change to the basic structure of our society.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-alexander/we-cannot-fix-the-police-without-a-revolution-of-values-and-radical/)

[Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-alexander/)

> [If we continue to tell ourselves the popular myths about racial progress or, worse yet, if we say to ourselves that the problem of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-alexander/if-we-continue-to-tell-ourselves-the-popular-myths-about-racial/)

[Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-alexander/)

> [The mass incarceration of poor people of color, particularly black men, has emerged as a new caste system, one specifically designed to address the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-alexander/the-mass-incarceration-of-poor-people-of-color-particularly-black-men/)

[Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-alexander/)

> [ “\[T\]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… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-alexander/t-he-slave-went-free-stood-a-brief-moment-in-the-sun-then-moved-back/)

[Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-alexander/)

> [If you take into account prisoners, a large majority of African American men in some urban areas, like Chicago, have been labeled felons for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-alexander/if-you-take-into-account-prisoners-a-large-majority-of-african/)

[Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-alexander/)

> [“A new civil rights movement cannot be organized around the relics of the earlier system of control if it is to address meaningfully the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-alexander/a-new-civil-rights-movement-cannot-be-organized-around-the-relics-of/)

[Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-alexander/)

> [The rules and reasons the political system employs to enforce status relations of any kind, including racial hierarchy, evolve and change as they are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michelle-alexander/the-rules-and-reasons-the-political-system-employs-to-enforce-status/)

[Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-alexander/)

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