Michelle Alexander is not just a writer but a civil rights advocate, a legal scholar, and a visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary. Her works have also been published in the New York Times. “The New Jim Crow” is the book she is specifically known for for many great reasons. She discusses in depth about the prison system in America and how it disproportionately reflects black people vs. white people in the American population meaning black people and white people commit the same rate of crimes. The title “The New Jim Crow” is intentionally named to jab at the prison and judicial system for rebirthing a way to enslave African Americans once again by imprisoning them and making them second-class status. She also talks about the War on Drugs and how targeting black men is another way of racial control even though our system claims to be ‘colorblind’. This book truly opened my eyes and gave me a whole new perspective about the way our system has been obviously ruining black lives under our noses. Denying their basic rights, stripping them from reality, and brutally sucking the life out of them for petty crimes like possession of marijuana (which is now legal and yet they have not been released). Alexander breaks it all down and challenges the civil rights community to place these issues as priorities.
I encourage anyone who is willing to learn more to give this book a read! It’s truly life changing and that is why I am going to give it a big gold medal!
Erica Ramirez has had this book on her mind since reading it for the first time in 2016. Having just graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in Journalism and Professional Writing and a minor in Digital Media from UMass Lowell (the lucky class of 2020), I have been studying, reading, and writing about social justice issues for the last 4 years. I even have recorded and edited videos about what microaggressions are and the reactions of Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the National Anthem.I am thrilled to discuss the meaning of this beautiful book written by Michelle Alexander.
