The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration During The Age Of...

In the new proactive book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander dives into the not so complicated racial issues that plague this country that we tend to ignore. In all of history, African Americans have had to constantly fight for their freedoms and the right to be considered a human being in this society. It’s very troubling looking back and seeing where we have failed people in this country. At the turn of the century, when people began to think that we had left our old ways behind, this book reminds us that we are wrong. Racism is still alive today in every way, just in different forms. The politicians of America like to hide or mask this new form of racism and control by a way that we†¦show more content†¦We approximately have 5 percent of the nation’s population, but we have over  ¼ of the world’s prisoners. This number is still increasing at an alarming rate. Since the 1980’s the prison population has increased to 2.2 million men and women. In all of the world, we are the leaders in incarceration. Most of the people being arrested and charged are for drug related offenses. This significant increase in prisoners is due to the War on Drugs started by Ronald Regan. Alexander claims that the sole reason that the war on drugs was started was to maintain the racist nature that faces America. Alexander realizes that even though the Jim Crow Laws were eradicated, we have just reshaped the ways in which we decide to ruin lives. As the old adage says, â€Å"The more things change, the more they remain the same†. I think to a certain point Americans need to have reassurance that things really are changing and here’s where Jim Crow ends, but in the background the powerful people in this country had to come up with a new plan to feed their racist nature. One politician after another want to show how tough they can be on drugs. Each wanting to be stronger than the other. They didn’t care who they were hurting on the bottom, as long as they looked extra tough. The main race being incarcerated and targeted is African Americans. For years, poor neighborhoods have been targeted by police, whose main purpose was to find drugs by any means