The New Jim Crow: Racism and Social systems
The United States has a history of profound caste system based on race. The racial segregation and classification of people are traced back to the slavery period in which the people of color taken in the transatlantic slave trade were treated as less of humans. In the era that followed, such as mass immigration from different parts of the world continued to reveal the racial challenge in the community. The legislative systems allowed citizenship based on the color of the skin, thus allowing people from various European countries to gain citizenship. In contrast, the brown and Asian people were denied fundamental human rights. The different periods and decisions made by the government express the intensive approach of racism in the significant sectors in the country. In the book titled The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander looks into the different ways in which the aspect of racism has been carried in the new generation. With reference to the segregation laws in the Jim Crow era, the author looks into the different ways in which the same laws and injustices are expressed in the current period. The two main themes in the book are racism and social system that lead to different forms of prejudice that limit the progress of African American society through mass incarceration by limiting the economic and political people of the people.
The aspect of racism is expressed as the guiding issue in making policies in regulations in America. The author looks into different ways in which the leaders in American have expressed different deeply-held ideas of racism. As Alexander explains in the rebirth of the caste system in the American society, “Their campaign to “redeem” the South was reinforced by a resurgent Ku Klux Klan, which fought a terrorist campaign against Reconstruction governments and local leaders, complete with bombings, lynching, and mob violence” (30). In that, the opinions of the leaders and the side in which they lean affects the legislative laws on various issues in the community. In the era of the Jim Crow laws, the leaders from the south had immense participation in the inhumane acts happening by allowing the community to continue with rules that were created to diminish the humanity of African. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
The concept of colorblindness is also expressed in the text as a significant challenge of racism in modern American society. In the ending of the segregation laws and various forms of discrimination, a new aspect of ignoring color became an essential ideology in society. According to the author, “The colorblind public consensus that prevails in America today—i.e., the widespread belief that race no longer matters—has blinded us to the realities of race in our society and facilitated the emergence of a new caste system” (12). In that, the idea of race not being influential in any of the laws, activities, and government actions has led to the lowered address of the racial issues that continue to affect American society. Racial blindness has leas to different leaders making laws and different systems in the community creating racial disparities while claiming to maintain neutrality. The author goes ahead to express that the new aspect of color blindness was based on the aspect of not using race as the primary determinant in social processes. As Alexander explains, “This process took place with the understanding that whatever the new order would be, it would have to be formally race-neutral—it could not involve explicit or clearly intentional race discrimination” (40). Unfortunately, the unintentional racial discrimination and ignorance of the racial issues in the society have not lowered the cases or the aspects of discrimination in society. The author looks into different ways in which the cast system has been pushed into the modern society through mass incarceration. The concept of color blindness is characterized as the leading reason in which the challenges of the people of color have not been addressed in the modern society.
The current social system in American is effective in allowing the inequality to take root, starting from the policing systems. The policing systems in America have been defined as the grassroots unit that allows racial disparities to continue. The law enforcement units have long-lasting policies that have continued to be the building blocks for the current challenge in modern society. Alexander gives an example of the main ways in which the police have been allowed to develop specific characteristics that impact the community. According to the author, “The absence of significant constraints on the exercise of police discretion is a key feature of the drug war’s design. It has made the roundup of millions of Americans for nonviolent drug offenses relatively easy” (60). The social system has placed the aspect of judge and jury in the hands of the police officers. The war on drugs aided in the establishment of power in the social unit of policing. This is because the police were given the right to stop and frisk people with minimum to no laws governing their actions. The social system has allowed the power to pass judgment in American society based on skin color to continue in the modern era. The Jim Crow look-alike rules and regulations in the contemporary society that govern the policing unit have allowed the challenge of racism to continue.
Similarly, the social system of courts and juries has allowed social injustices based on race to continue in American society. The justice system in a free nation is an essential unit as it is used to determine the guilty and innocent people. However, the concept of justice is limited in the social system based on laws and policies that have allowed racial injustice to be profound in the system. As Alexander explains, “The rules governing jury selection provide yet another illustration of the Court’s complete abdication of its responsibility to guarantee racial minorities equal treatment under the law” (116). Justice is defined as being guided by color in American society. The juries of all white people and lawyers that are clearly leaning towards color have been instrumental in the oppression of the people of color for decades. The justice system as a social unit starts the process of oppression of the African Americans by providing a public defender who is not interested in defense of the people of color based on their workload and inadequate working funds. Next, the men and women of color arrested on assumption or fewer crimes are placed in front of a jury that views them as a threat to the community based on the color of the skin. The structures of racism in the social unit have continued to lower the ability of African Americans to find justice; thus, racial discrimination continues to prosper in modern society. The judicial system is still based in the Jim Crow eras in which justice of the minority groups is not applicable.
Additionally, the social system has allowed mass incarceration of the people of color to be a common practice in the nation. The social systems at play in the American culture enable the injustices continue starting from the policing and justice systems. The social unit of rehabilitation and punishment in the United States is defined as the leading solution in the segregation and oppression of the people of color in modern society. As the author explains, “the most significant problem the black community may face today is not “shamelessness” but rather the severe isolation, distrust, and alienation created by mass incarceration. During Jim Crow, blacks were severely stigmatized and segregated on the basis of race, but in their own communities, they could find support, solidarity, acceptance—love” (Alexander 160). Mass incarceration has been used for the advancement of a narrative of worthlessness in the community. Apart from the people of the white race, the people of color have also been influenced by the system as mistrust has increased within the community. The judicial system has lowered the ability of the African American people to progress in the community in any way under cover of a felon. The war on drugs is traced as the root of the current evils of mass incarceration as it led to the dismissal of the members of the African American society as being involved in the crack and illegal activities. Although the president that commissioned the war on drugs insists on racial-neutrality and purely based on the increase of drugs on the streets, the results were contradictory. Alexander mentions that despite the increased arrests across the nation, the drug use continued to rise in America rather than reducing. However, the rehabilitation system was characterized by people of color in various units across the nation. The war on drugs, thus showing the negative racial target caused by the war on drugs as being the war on people of color across America. Alexander explains the manner in which a specific community was targeted and continues to suffer from the challenges posed on the community over the years based on the ending of drug use in America.
The social systems of rehabilitation and punishment have adverse impacts on the people of color based on the political and economic aftermath. The punishment system in American isolates the people in the community by labeling them as felons for the rest of their lives. The title, as applied in the community, limits the political rights of a person as they cannot vote or participate in juries. As Alexander comments, “These figures may understate the impact of felony disenfranchisement because they do not take into account the millions of ex-felons who cannot vote in states that require ex-felons to pay fines or fees before their voting rights can be restored—the new poll tax” (188). In that, the political power which is presented in the form of votes cannot be exercised by the members of the community as the people of color are most affected by mass incarceration. Similarly, the felons cannot get jobs, thus limiting their survival after arrests and rehabilitation. The title of an ex-felon is used as a tag that shows a person that cannot be trusted in society as they are criminals. As a result, the ex-felon is drawn to working in illegal business or engaging in different forms of crimes, thus leading to rearrests. The impact of mass incarceration as a social system is the continued oppression of people of color as they cannot rise in the social caste system. The lack of the fundamental rights to vote and influence the political structure of the community allows the voice of the African Americans to be limited as the Jim Crow era. Moreover, continuous rearrests lead to a community in which the primary workforce is removed, and poverty affects the people.
Racism and social systems have significant impacts on people of color. Michelle Alexander explains the specific ways in which modern society resembles the Jim Crow era based on the beliefs of race and social injustices. The contemporary society is defined by a group of leaders that continue to pass laws that target a specific community such as the war on drugs. Similarly, the concept of color blindness has affected the direct address of the challenges of the community as they cannot be easily identified. However, the racial injustice in American is institutional, as expressed in the police, justice, and social rehabilitation systems. The systems have allowed the people of color to be oppressed in modern society despite the political leaders claiming to the color blindness. Alexander calls for the change in the address of mass incarceration. She explains the increased incarceration of the people of color as being similar to the crisis of Jim Crow thus should be addressed in the modern society. As a result, the leaders and representatives of the people of color in different institutions should address the concept of social injustices that need to be corrected in modern society.