Michelle Alexander

“A heavy and cruel hand has been laid upon us. As a people, we feel ourselves to be not only deeply injured,…

— Michelle Alexander

The sprinkling of people of color through elite institutions in the United States, due to affirmative action policies and the limited progress…

— Michelle Alexander

Public housing is off-limits to you if you have been convicted of a felony. For a minimum of five years, you are…

— Michelle Alexander

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

“The process occurs in two stages. The first step is to grant law enforcement officials extraordinary discretion regarding whom to stop, search,…

— Michelle Alexander

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

— 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

The cyclical rebirth of caste in America is a recurring racial nightmare.

— 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

Nationwide, 1 in 3 black men can expect to serve time behind bars, but the rates are far higher in segregated and…

— Michelle Alexander

My own view - and I'm very open to hearing other perspectives - is that this movement-building needs to begin at home,…

— Michelle Alexander

People return home from prison and face legal discrimination in virtually all areas of social and economic and political life. They are…

— Michelle Alexander

The problem that we face as civil rights lawyers and advocates is that its extremely difficult to prove race discrimination because the…

— 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

“people. Police usually release the innocent on the street—often without a ticket, citation, or even an apology—so their stories are rarely heard…

— Michelle Alexander

I have spent years representing victims of racial profiling and police brutality and investigating patterns of drug law enforcement in poor communities…

— Michelle Alexander

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

— Michelle Alexander

“acknowledged—aspect of the new system of control. The historical anthropologist Gerald Sider once wrote, “We can have no significant understanding of any…

— Michelle Alexander

We're living in a time when so many of the civil rights and social justice organizations are run by lawyers and policy…

— 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

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

— Michelle Alexander

Our entire political system is financed by wealthy private interests buying politicians and making sure the rules are written in their favor.

— 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

“Many people are shocked to discover that what happened to them on the side of the road was not, in fact, against…

— Michelle Alexander

“Despite claims that these radical policy changes were driven by fiscal conservatism...the reality is that government was not reducing the amount of…

— Michelle Alexander