Alexander argues that black Americans who face mass incarceration through the war on drugs do not feel the gains of the civil rights movement. She equates this to the new Jim Crow era since the old Jim Crow era is long gone even if its principles live on. The old Jim Crow laws placed the African American in subordinate status, which manifests in modern day justice system (Alexander, 2010 p.21). She uses this analogy to analyze various issues facing African Americans and proves that racial segregation and class segmentation exists. This paper focuses on analyzing her argument and placing it into perspective hence decide whether mass incarceration is the new Jim Crow.
The policies adopted continued molding a society featuring racial hierarchy where the white race ranks highest. The war on drugs began to paint an inferior picture of the African Americans while imprisoning a large number of their population. It began before the actual drug problem started, meaning this was simply a conspiracy with an agenda of defining the social structure. The war went ahead to place the black man as the face of crime and drug use further questioning its intentions.
Policies installed require severe punishment for criminals to disallow their integration with society after serving their sentence in jail. They cannot access government aid when they have a record hence always carry the label of a criminal for the rest of their lives (Drucker, 2011 p.88). Outsourcing and globalization led to unemployment of the less educated population hence expanding the economic inequality. African Americans felt the largest impact of this scenario since jobs shifted from the ghetto to suburban areas where transportation hindered their accessibility. Drug dealing therefore became a convenient option for the population and the legal system ensured it attracted more penalties. The government further increased the investment in prisons to ensure the criminals had jails ready for them and could hold as many as possible.
Drugs became a basis on which the government racially decided the giving of sentences to criminals. The media also joined in perpetrating the racial message by portraying the African Americans as dangerous people who belong in jail and undeserving of economic elevation. Instead of helping them, the government found a way to oppress them and derail their development. These policies therefore aimed at creating a society with racial hierarchy rather than fighting crime or improving the society by improving conditions of the poverty-stricken population.
Alexander uses the Jim Crow analogy since it had a strong association with segregation and inequality based on racial inclination (Alexander, 2010 p.47). The Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation in public facilities in southern United States. Public places manifested this racial discrimination with the blacks receiving inferior treatment to the whites. The civil rights movement however ensured the abolishment of the Jim Crow laws to accord equal rights to individuals despite their race. This meant giving voting rights to African Americans and addressing their low economic standards.
This involved offering equal employment opportunities to the community such that all citizens fought equally for employment. This meant to replace the existing racial caste system and introduce a system of equality. Despite the success of the civil rights movement, the society still managed to promote a racial system. The rising crime rate became the new basis of segregation and promoted racial segregation. Politicians introduced campaigns promoting the anti-black rhetoric to continue painting a picture of inferiority of the African Americans. They put black people as the face of poverty while making them the main perpetrators of crime hence introduction of the war against drugs.
Evidently, this mimicked the Jim Crow laws that facilitated racial segregation and placed the African Americans in an inferior position to that of the whites. It also placed the African Americans in second-class status and therefore despite being in a similar situation as the whites, they always took first place. This was the reason Alexander decided to use the Jim Crow analogy in addressing the issue to indicate that the country had not made any strides in eliminating racial discrimination.
The media plays a crucial role in painting a certain image of the African American population in relation to drug use. It has painted the population as drug users and peddlers by showing pictures and films featuring African Americans as users of drugs especially crack. This paints a picture of what a criminal looks like and a black man is definitely the face of crime and drugs according to these broadcasts (Drucker, 2011 p.111). This allows the police to use stereotypes and racial bias to select suspects of drug related crimes.
Stereotyping black men as drug dealers affects the community’s perception leading to ignorance of the real issue and the actual perpetrators walk scot-free as the police focus on the wrong suspects. Research done in 1995 proved that most people envision a drug user as a black man while facts revealed that they only constitute fifteen percent. A police officer is also more likely to shoot an unarmed black man and leave an armed white man due to the perception that African Americans are criminals.
People become harsh when dealing with a black suspect and become friendlier when dealing with a light-skinned suspect. Alexander’s concern about the misplaced place of the media was due to their promotion of the misleading narrative that black is the face of crime. They failed in playing their crucial role of highlighting the actual issue to enable society comprehend, analyze, and find a solution to crime and drug use.
They could also highlight the continued segregation motives developed by politicians seeking votes using destructive slogans to enable a quick solution. The media ironically facilitated racial segregation by associating certain races with drug use and general crime instead of focusing on facts. The media is responsible for promoting these stereotypes and promoting racial biases that lead to unfair treatment of certain groups of people in society.
Inequality manifests in the justice system where the poor people of color encounter the full force of the law at early ages. They encounter the system for minor and nonviolent crimes, which later land them in jail at very early ages. In prison, they get the criminal and felon label that does not depart from them for the rest of their lives. After release, they acquire a permanent second-class status and the system denies them basic rights that the civil rights movement supposedly offered.
The African Americans have no right to vote and to serve on juries hence cannot participate in important national matters since the system sends a message that their opinion does not count. They also face legal discrimination due to their criminal record and therefore the society and the law still regards them as dangerous to the community. Discrimination from employment, education, and access to public benefits ensures they remain in the second-class status (Pager, 2007 p.42).
Many forms of discrimination left behind in the Jim Crow era become legal once a person acquires the brand of a felon. The government has facilitated the high level of discrimination experienced in the legal system through the heavy funding of state and local law enforcement agencies committed to drug arrests. Applauding the large number of drug arrests encourages the ‘go on a rampage’ and look for any suspicious individual in an attempt to catch them with drugs and drag them into the system. Locking away African American males has therefore become their agenda as they focus their attention and resources to hunting them down. They stop, frisk, and search as many as possible to boost their numbers and ensure the heavy funding continues.
Statistics indicate that in major cities, over half of working age African American males has the brand of felons or under correctional control hence subject to legal discrimination. This affects their ability to find jobs, study, or even interact with other citizens due to their reputation. They also have no access to justice due to the discriminatory nature of the system hence crimes against them go unpunished.
Alexander succeeds in demonstrating that racial segregation still exists and it never left in the first place. She uses the Jim Crow analogy to prove this point and show that the policies and laws still place the African Americans at the second-class status and deny them basic rights (Alexander, 2010 p.32).
The Jim Crow laws focused on racial segregation by denying the blacks equal rights especially in public places hence discrimination was an open secret. This form of discrimination continues through the war on drugs that concentrates on jailing the young African Americans from poor backgrounds. This creates a system of racial segregation and class segmentation where the felons have no means to upgrade their status due to inaccessibility of jobs and education.
References
Alexander M. 2010. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New Press.
Drucker E. M. 2011. A Plague of Prisons: The Epidemiology of Mass Incarceration in America. New York: New Press.
Pager D. 2007. Marked: Race, Crime, And Finding Work In An Era Of Mass Incarceration. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press.
