Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Michelle Alexander is a civil rights activist and a pronounced legal scholar. The book discusses race-related issues majorly on African Americans males and the mass incarceration in America. Alexander, however, notes that discrimination among black Americans is on the minorities and socio-economically disadvantaged populations. The book majorly shows that mass incarceration is in the metaphoric world of the new Jim Crow. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness was written by Michelle Alexander to expose the truth of racial injustice in the system of mass incarceration through the comparison of racial control. She reveals how race plays a vital role in the American Justice System. Alexander argues about the racial bias, particularly concerning African-Americans, essential in the war on drugs due to lack of political power and how the Supreme Court stomachs injustice.
As much as some victims of this category of abuse took legal action and confirmed that the fight against drugs is racially unfair, their statements were overruled and ignored in court. This paper shows how the author reveals the impact of racism and prejudice and how it has given rise to the partial criminal impartiality systems that take us back to the years of Jim Crow. Jim Crow displays that we are living in a new era where African Americans are irrefutably discriminated based on their race. The main idea of the author in this book is to show the superb rebirth of the system in America. This has resulted in the imprisonment of many African Americans infringing on their rights based on the race, which, according to the author, is undermining the fundamental human rights.
According to my analysis and view of this, I agree with the totality of the argument of Michelle Alexander’s essay. The mass incarceration has resulted in the congestion of American prisons on the persons convicted of selling hard drugs. However, this is not carried out justly because many of these inmates are put in jail basing on the race and skin color. Alexander argues that the fight against drugs has an adverse impact on Black Americans. This has resulted in the magical rise of prison’s population from a mere 300,000 inmates to a whole one million inmates. The majority of the communities are blacks. The author notes that the federal laws are biased to focus on the African Americans a thing which is not fair at all.
According to the author, crime, and the punishment it comes with are not well correlated. This has made the current US justice systems to be based mainly on race. The frequency of incarceration in America has ascended, while the rate of crimes has remained constant. The current state of incarceration in America is quite higher as compared to other developed countries at the same level. Alexander still has her stand that the disparity is not in conjunction with the fluctuation of the crime rates; rather, it has discriminatory policies. The civil rights groups have become adamant about this issue and have not, in any case, addressed it.
In conclusion, the paper has shown how racism and prejudice have brought about biases in the criminal justice systems. From Michelle’s view, mass incarceration is majorly based on race, and the system is not fair at all. The increase of the prison population can attest to the failed criminal justice, and biased federal laws are trying to convict the blacks from all angles. It is wrong for the US government to judge and condemn people based on social status and race. As an activist, one should always respect another person’s fundamental rights and convict them according to the set standards; in my view, I also agree in totality with Michelle. The federal laws and conviction of people should be looked into; nobody should be discriminated against because of their social status and race. If all these are put into consideration, I am sure the crime rates can reduce significantly due to the right and fair justice being served.