Reading the New Jim Crow: Introduction Quotes | Michelle Alexander

The New Jim Crow's Argument

In reading the text, don't lose sight of what this text is arguing (Introduction, Pg. 11). 

See the quote below:

"Imagine if civil rights organizations and African American leaders in the 1940s had not placed Jim Crow segregation at the forefront of their racial justice agenda.  It would have seemed absurd, given that racial segregation was the primary vehicle of racialized social control in the United States during that period.  This book argues that mass incarceration is, metaphorically, the New Jim Crow and that all those who care about social justice should fully commit themselves to dismantling this new racial caste system.  Mass incarceration - not attacks on affirmative action or lax civil rights enforcement - is the most damaging manifestation of the backlash against the Civil Rights Movement.  The popular narrative that emphasizes the death of slavery and Jim Crow and celebrates the nation's "triumph over race" with the election of Barack Obama, is dangerously misguided.  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."