The state is just another form of slavery, according to Michelle Alexander. In 2012, the Ohio State University law professor and civil rights activist wrote a book entitled, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”. The book deals primarily with the racist practices of the criminal justice system by their indiscriminate targeting of African Americans through the War on Drugs.
While speaking to a Pasadena Branch of the ACLU in 2011, Alexander spoke at length about the troubling statistics. In 2008, more than 846,000 black men were incarcerated, and overall they comprise 40.2 percent of all prisoners in the U.S. This doesn’t even take into account the African Americans that are under the watchful eye of the government though probation and parole. Alexander argues that the prison industrial complex has led to the continued exploitation and oppression of African Americans, and that American prisons are merely another way the government can create and maintain a population comprised of second-class citizens with little to no rights.
While Alexander makes a compelling argument, the statistics are slightly skewed. According to the 1850 census, there were 3.6 million African Americans in the U.S. (3.2 million were slaves). The African American population has since increased to 39 million, not counting those of mixed races. Given that about 90 percent of African Americans were slaves in 1850 while only 40.2 percent are currently in prison, Alexander may be guilty of sensationalism. This does not to detract from the fact that the prison system is disproportionately comprised of African Americans, but the methods to combat this injustice shouldn’t lack context and analysis.
[about_faith]
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