Michelle Alexander

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

— Michelle Alexander

The mass criminalization of white men would disturb us to the core.

— Michelle Alexander

“The more things change, the more they remain the same.”

— Michelle Alexander

We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it

— Michelle Alexander

“Before democracy, chattel slavery in America was born”

— Michelle Alexander

I say we haven't ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.

— Michelle Alexander

I do believe that something akin to a racial caste system is alive and well in America.

— Michelle Alexander

Mass incarceration is the most pressing racial justice issue of our time.

— Michelle Alexander

“These racialized narratives tend to confirm and reinforce the prevailing public consensus that we need not care about “those people”; they deserve…

— Michelle Alexander

“There was no contradiction in the bold claim made by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created…

— Michelle Alexander

It was because of race that we didnt care much what happened to those people and imagined the worst possible things about…

— Michelle Alexander

Prison guard unions have become the powerful political forces in some states, particularly California.

— Michelle Alexander

People are swept into the criminal justice system - particularly in poor communities of color - at very early ages... typically for…

— Michelle Alexander

The backlash against gains of African Americans in the Reconstruction Era was swift and severe.

— Michelle Alexander

Globalization and deindustrialization affected workers of all colors but hit African Americans particularly hard.

— Michelle Alexander

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

Once you've acquired a criminal record, you can be discriminated against legally in employment, housing, and access to education and public benefits.…

— Michelle Alexander

Top-quality public education, universal health care, and free child care are among the many benefits provided by the state in Norway, reflecting…

— Michelle Alexander

Exposing police lying is difficult largely because it is rare for the police to admit their own lies or to acknowledge the…

— Michelle Alexander

“In October 1982, president Reagan officially announced his administration's war on drugs. At the time he declared this new war, less than…

— Michelle Alexander

I am still committed to building a movement to end mass incarceration, but I will not do it with blinders on. If…

— Michelle Alexander

The extraordinary nature of individual black achievement in formerly white domain certainly does suggest that the old Jim Crow is dead, but…

— Michelle Alexander

“there is no inconsistency whatsoever between the election of Barack Obama to the highest office in the land and the existence of…

— 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…

— Michelle Alexander

“As law enforcement budgets exploded, so did prison and jail populations. In 1991, the Sentencing Project reported that the number of people…

— Michelle Alexander

“White supremacy, over time, became a religion of sorts. Faith in the idea that people of the African race were bestial, that…

— Michelle Alexander

“Defendants are typically denied meaningful legal representation, pressured by the threat of lengthy sentences into a plea bargain, and then placed under…

— Michelle Alexander

“The state of Mississippi eventually moved from hiring convict labor to organizing its own convict labor camp, known as Parchman Farm. It…

— Michelle Alexander

“By the turn of the twentieth century, every state in the South had laws on the books that disenfranchised blacks and discriminated…

— Michelle Alexander

Today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all the ways that it was once legal to discriminate against…

— Michelle Alexander

I think that we need to begin talking about what does it mean to create these safe spaces in our communities, to…

— Michelle Alexander

Certainly youth of color, particularly those in ghetto communities, find themselves born into the cage. They are born into a community in…

— Michelle Alexander

“Merely reducing prison terms does not have a major impact on the majority of people in the system. It is the badge…

— Michelle Alexander

“Segregation laws were proposed as part of a deliberate effort to drive a wedge between poor whites and African Americans. These discriminatory…

— Michelle Alexander

“Once a person is labeled a felon, he or she is ushered into a parallel universe in which discrimination, stigma, and exclusion…

— Michelle Alexander

“Approximately 80 percent of criminal defendants are indigent and thus unable to hire a lawyer. Yet our nation's public defender system is…

— Michelle Alexander

“Today my elation over Obama's election is tempered by a far more sobering awareness. As an African American woman, with three young…

— Michelle Alexander

“Before we begin our tour of the drug war, it is worthwhile to get a couple of myths out of the way.…

— Michelle Alexander

“The War on Drugs proved popular among key white voters, particularly whites who remained resentful of black progress, civil rights enforcement, and…

— Michelle Alexander

“Criminals, it turns out, are the one social group in America we have permission to hate. In 'colorblind' America, criminals are the…

— Michelle Alexander