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The New Jim Crow

The New Jim Crow is a piece of work that delves into the racial issues particularly those of the African-Americans. The book also deals with the mass imprisonment that has been witnessed in the North American country over the years. One of the renowned author and civil rights supporter, authored the piece of work and law intellectual named Alexander. The book has been dubbed the worldly bible for conventional social lobby group. The book looks at how the minority groups, which spans the African-Americans and the socially deprived demographics, suffer at the hands of those who are supposed to be guardians of their freedom. As much as these notions form the basis of Alexander’s book, the main element in the book is the congruence between the Jim Crow and the mass imprisonment. Indeed, Alexander utilizes the topic The New Jim Crow as a metaphor for the incarcerations occurring in the Americas in the current world.

Worldviews suggest and view that any discrimination concluded after the civil rights lobby groups in the 1960’s. However, this is not true because the minority groups go through many forms of discrimination even in the current American nation. From the book, Alexander states that the government uses other charges as a scapegoat for the large number of minority groups being jailed in the current United States. Alexander focuses on the War on Drugs to prove his point by stating that the justice department uses this vice to discriminate in a way that seems just in the eyes of the citizens and the universe. This aspect of the justice system does not only act as a form of discrimination but also a form of subjugation. Alexander uses the current state of the US penal system as evidence of the way the discrimination has resulted in a large number of innocent citizens being put in jail for framed offends. This trend is greater for the Black Americans and Alexander intimates that if the trend were to persist then more than thirty percent of the Black American males will be incarcerated. The fact that several white Americans are involved in drug trade more than the Black people shows how this fight is directed at the Black Americans. Thus, the main principal target of the US justice system is driven by race.

All these events direct Alexander’s notion that the Jim Crow of the past has once again come up in a different covert form in the form of the War on Drugs. Indeed, Alexander believes that mass imprisonment is a strikingly complete and well-camouflaged system of racial. This system functions in a way that is comparable to Jim Crow. The zenith of this social command is termed as the social class system by the author of The New Jim Crow. According to Alexander, this caste system is determined to keep the Black American at the bottom of the social ladder by mudslinging their characters with fake drug charges and then incarcerating them. Therefore, she argues that the elements of racial discrimination in the current American society should be dealt it in a similar way as the racial discrimination of the 1960s was done. These concerns should be tackled and adjudged as racial justice and civil rights concerns. With this book, Alexander intends to bring to forth the real issues underlying the mass imprisonments. Alexander wishes to change the perception that racial discrimination ended in the 1960s. Her book is full of information on real events and arguments that relate the current state of the penal system to Jim Crow. She is focused on having equal opportunities for every citizen in the US. Her perceptions are corroborated by the recent events where a white officer who later got away with it shot a young black youth.

Alexander states that the only thing that has changed since the abolition of Jim Craw is the language used rather than the reality and the structure of the American society. Her argument is that during the times that the black people are discriminated and labelled as criminals just because of their colour, implies that these people are legally discriminated. This will affect their employment chances, promotions, housing, voting rights and even education among other fundamental rights. This discrimination is present in all systems of the American society although they have been disguised by their description using nice language.

The history of the American society is very much rooted on the veils done on the black Americans since their enslavement through to their supposed emancipation. However, through Alexander’s eyes, this emancipation is only on the lips of the people since most of the coloured community are still living in abject poverty. Moreover, recent events suggest that the black race is still under the black race considering the percentage of black individuals leading the largest corporations and government entities in America. This case can be compared to South Africa’s case where after independence and the end of apartheid, the black South Africans were expected to have improved service and lifestyle. However, that is not the case because most of them still live in the poverty-stricken Soweto while their white counterparts live in rich suburbans.

The concept of the New Jim Crow has taken several years to comprehend even for established civil right fighters such as Alexander. This implies that the society will take time and a huge reluctance in understanding that the current occurrences in the country can be compared to the law that classified the American citizens according to the colour of their skin. In essence, the problems facing the minority groups in the American society are many. However, to state that these problems are passive and normal is to become naive of the reasons underlying these problems. Poverty, little educational chances, and crime in the streets are often associated with the black community. There is a belief that the black folk enter into a life of crime due to their essential life needs. The society tries to dirty their image by using beautiful words while pointing an accusing finger at every black boy and girl notwithstanding their upbringing. All these events have been created by government policies that have been created purposefully to effect these discriminations. In essence, what is happening in the current America is a direct comparison of the events and policies in Jim Crow in the 1890s.

One of the evidence provided by Alexander of the New Jim Crow arises from Reagan’s administration intensification of the War on Drugs. The administration alleged that there was an increase in the existence of crack cocaine in black ghettos. However, this announcement and intervention came before the supposed crack cocaine had even entered the black neighbourhoods. In the 1980s, the usage of crack cocaine had increased to great levels in most neighbourhoods in the US. The government had noticed this problem, and they sought to get rid of the behaviour using threats and aggressive approaches on the inner neighbourhoods. As much as the crack cocaine had not reached these neighbourhoods, the announcement created a myth that the black community were drug offenders. Moreover, the escalation of the crack on a drug that had not yet entered the community proved that the government was witch-hunting with the scapegoat being the black community.

In the year 1998, the Central Intelligence Agency agreed that a contra faction covert operation in which the United States was included in the US in the 1908’s. This operation smuggled drugs into the US and distributing them into the neighbourhoods in the country. The DEA tried to expose these operations, but officials in the Reagan administration blocked it. These drug smuggling operations were responsible for the increase in the sale and use of crack cocaine in the US at this time. Instead of the DEA going for the root of the problem, they began arresting people on the streets especially the inner neighbourhoods where the black community inhabits. In essence, the government was responsible for the bloating of the drug menace in the streets because they were involved in the smuggling even though indirectly. An insightful look at these events shows that the government had a hidden motive in stopping the DEA officials from arresting and controlling the drug smuggling from Nicaragua. The motive was mainly to discredit the black communities by terming them drug peddlers. A look at these past events shows that the government’s purpose was successful because the increased surveillance of drug activities on the streets resulted in the arrest and incarceration of several black people. Contrasting judgment policies for crack cocaine offenders and powdered cocaine offenders implies that a large number of inner neighbourhood offenders were convicted. The history of crack and powdered cocaine arises from the fact that the residents from inner neighbourhoods preferred cheaper types of cocaine, which was crack cocaine rather than the powdered ones, which were expensive.

Since the majority of Black people were poor and lived in these inner cities, the sentences were seen as targeting them. In truth, an offence is an offence no matter what social class someone belongs to. This was not the case with the justice system at the time as the caste system played a big role in the convictions. This situation mirrored the Jim Crow laws where the white race was favoured to the black race. However, the difference is that the discrimination was covert and not open as it was a century ago. This form of discrimination is not evident in the eyes of those who are discriminated. This shows that those who are well placed in the society either do not care or do not have a hint of the existence of this discrimination. Alexander states that this covert discrimination has been rampant to an extent that the minorities being discriminated about have recognized the evil and hence some have come out to appeal for justice.

The War on Drugs had a huge impact on the African-American communities as evidenced by the growing number of prisoners in the US prisons. The number of arrests and convictions was more than the actual occurrence of crime in this place. Indeed, the number of US prisoners rose from a 100,000 to over two million prisoners with a large percentage convicted of drug charges and being African-Americans. This number has been growing since then leading to America being the only nation with millions of people imprisoned in is prisons system. In truth, America is the only country on the planet with a huge focus on the implementation of federal drug regulations basing on the people marginalized by race and ethnicity. The reality on the ground is that drug menace in America is attributed to all races in the country. However, studies indicate that some states convict black men at high rates of approximately thirty to fifty-five more than they convict the white people. In addition, the percentage of African-Americans that have been convicted of this felony is approximately 80% in the largest cities. These people have been marginalized in dark corners of the city, a situation that Alexander terms as undercaste.

The reality in the current society implies that Alexander’s undercaste group is concealed, and indiscernible within a labyrinth of rationalizations and smooth language, with the only element that is visible, is the mass imprisonment. According to Alexander, undercaste is a prejudiced racial grouping that has been put into a lower class through barbaric laws and customs. In truth, she has utilized the phrase racial caste to provide her description of the current situation of mass incarcerations. In her terms, mass imprisonment has been used to denote the whole maze of traditions, regulations, policy, and laws that constitute the criminal justice and the penal system in the Americas. This web act as a mode of freedom for the higher caste, while it marginalizes against the people of the lower classes, termed as the undercaste. The irony is that the African-Americans fight to get out of prison only to come out of prison and encounter another prison existing in the free society, which is always plotting to undermine their rights.

The New Jim Crow highlights the height of impunity and injustice because the relationship between crime and punishment is highly skewed. Indeed, the justice system has become an epitome of injustice and social control incomparable to any other in the history of the globe. The most astounding fact is that the rate of occurrences of crime in the US is comparable to other developed nations. Even so, the number that has been incarcerated in the US is higher than these nations. Indeed, the rate of conviction in the US is six to eight times higher than other developed nations. This increase began since the War on Drugs began, which leads to the conclusion that the incarcerations are not as a result of increased in the rates of crime rather by the hidden motive under the “War on Drugs” targeted towards the black folk.

Despite the fact that this phenomenon has been out in the air recently, Alexander states that the civil right supporters are hesitant in tackling this matter. This is mainly because they are protective of the benefits accrued from the affirmative action. The sadness of this fact is that the gains from the affirmative action favour the influential group of African-Americans in the society living out the poverty-stricken.

This reality is unlikely to end soon as most Americans are ashamed of talking about their history especially concerning racial strife.The culture of Americans nowadays is that of individualism rather than collectivism. This implies that people believe that the future, the fate and destiny of every human being depends on individual efforts. This implies that stature of the New Jim Crow will expand because the people affected and those concerned with bringing equality into the United States do not seem to fathom the crucial nature of dealing with this occurrence now rather than later.

The election and re-election of Barack Obama as president have not changed the situation in the country. In fact, some analysts state that the situation of the Black people in the US has deteriorated during his tenure. Moreover, Alexander claims that the New Jim Crow has relied on African-American personalities such as Obama in what she terms as exceptionalism. Indeed, this system does not depend on an overt show of discrimination and personalities such as Obama make sure that the discrimination is concealed.

In conclusion, the concept of the New Jim Crow is growing in modern US society as the justice system has decided to go against its mandate. The fact that the affected community and the civil society have decided to be inactive in this matter implies that the New Jim Crow will continue growing.

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