The novel The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander and Michelle McCool is another outstanding addition to the already rich literature on racism, specifically that which targets African Americans. From the years of slavery until today, it is safe to say that although there are observable changes regarding the issue, they were only minimal. Proof to this is the number of cases that have been committed against African Americans, with 1,134 deaths involving police officers in 2015. Despite America’s claims that racism doesn’t exist anymore, with the country’s president a black American himself, and Oprah Winfrey being a prominent figure in an industry manipulated mostly by whites (Alexander 21), data strongly argues that this is not the case at all. The number of successful African Americans is largely overshadowed by those who are dealt with different forms of injustice. Despite the claims of some that racism is dead, it is as real as it was in the years before the Emancipation.
The book starts by stating this same idea, that racism is dead and equality has already been achieved. They are still at a great disadvantage, as in several states in America, African Americans who have been convicted due to drugs and other crimes are not allowed to vote. Similarly, voters are constantly given literacy tests which are also meant to prevent them from voting. They are also not allowed to ba a part of the jury, and are generally deprived of many other basic rights due solely to their crimes, regardless of its severity or how simple it is. These exercises show how African Americans, both within jail and those outside, are under the control of the government. Alexander stresses that this practice of controlling African Americans has already been going on since the apparent founding of the nation, in the guise of various laws such as the Jim Crow law (21). However, events that occurred through time show that despite the abolition of these laws, they continue to exist but in different forms. It is through this cycle of rebirth that the evil truth of racism was able to persist and took roots that go deeper than what many thought.
According to Alexander, “the concept of race is a relatively recent development” (23). This holds myriads of truth as before the concept of race was established, color was not an issue of interest. Both the white and black workers in plantations were treated the same, but with the reign of false sense of authority and the desire to control, colonization took place and segregated people based on the color of their skin to establish supremacy. This was even made worse by the need and desire of different nations to conquer more lands and hold more power over others. It was about survival of the fittest, wherein the strong and wealthy race would survive and rule over those who are weak.
The book, with its general theme of racial discrimination, focuses especially on the War on Drugs. She goes on to present then President Reagan’s war on drugs which led to the mass incarceration of young African Americans, which even after they were released in prison, were never free from the clutches of the police. They were closely monitored and kept closed, a hollow man that carries less rights and respectability that were stripped of him by being imprisoned. From him will come more generation of uneducated, unemployed, permanently marred, and more children who would bear the stigma.
This culture of incarceration, mostly due to drugs, is the main factor that prevents many African Americans from rising from the slump that they have been forced into. According to studies, there are more African Americans who are being controlled and monitored by the police than those who were enslaved before. With most men in jail, more wives and chilldren are left to take care of themselves on their own. Money is always a major concern, and children are left vulnerable to the dangers of the streets. There is always the possiblity of them getting involved in drugs, or getting attacked for practically simple reasons or at times, no reason at all. They are robbed of their rights to get better education, their only salvation from the difficult life that they are dealt with. The women, on the other hand, are out working, struggling to make a living for their children in the absence of their husbands. Despite the hard work, they are still in danger of getting attacked and abused in the streets or in the workplace. These situations, closely intertwined with each other, show how and why poverty, violence, and illiteracy are prevalent in areas where African Americans are forced to live. This scenario, wherein African Americans are grouped in certain states or areas, highlights the idea of segregation, an idea that existed during the slavery and was supposed to be and claimed to be dead already.
“There are milions of African Americans cycling in and out of prisons and jails under correctional control” (Alexander 43). This statement highlights how African Americans who were incarcerated were constantly targeted as constant victims to the apparent fighta against drugs. During the presidency of then President Reagan, the mass incarceration was interpeted as the governmet’s effort to project a strong and masculine nation who is able to handle such serious social problem. This observation was strengthened by literature written by people who were then fighting for the civil rights movement. With the power gained by these groups, the government then found a way that would put the African Americans back to their inferior position, where they are controlled and constantly manipulated by the government to promote or highlight whatever project or idea they want the people to believe.
As time goes by, the caste system that was discussed by Alexander became apparent through new rules and policies implemented which were aimed at perpetually taming and controlling the African Americans. Racial profiling was another method that was used to achieve it. This practice has the police keeping the profiles of those who have been imprisoned, as well as those who were not, in order to be used in conducting investigations. Several cases and novels have shown the injustice behind this practice, with that of Ronald Cotton to be the most famous one. According to the case, he was imprisoned and accused wrongly for so many years because of racial profiling, which had him clssified among other African Americans like him due to his physical profile. He was then picked by the victims when placed in a line along with others, and was sent to jail right after. He lived in a poor community for African Americans, which was also included in his profile, and because of that he became an easy target despite not having any records more serious than physical assault. Alexander describes her experience as a lawyer representing those who became victims of racial profiling, and according to her conclusion, the system of mass incarceration is more of a caste system than a system aligned with its purpose of preventing and controling crimes (Alexander 108).
The book looks back to the Jim Crow law, a racial caste system which was implemented in between the years 1877 to the mid-1960s. What it was in actuality was a series of anti-Black laws which was more a way of life as African Americans were then classified as second class citizens. They were separated from the whites, as can be seen from signages which were placed in prominent places to intensify and further drive the insult and obvious action of undermining their race. The government though, through their own words, speak of a different version to justify their acts, stating that the arrival of the “Negroes” from the South has brought with it a rise in crime, and as such segregation was the only solution that could be implemented to prevent more crimes against the whites, especially the women, can be prevented (Alexander 41). This was strategically implemented during the time when the civil rights movement was gathering support and small success in a rather slow but steady pace. To further magnify and justify the government’s case, the FBI then went on to present data of crime rates, and later on announce that “Segregation is the only answer as most Americans – not politicians – have realized for hundreds of years” (Alexander 41). As the government attacked and evaded, the implementation was carried, that instead of the “law and order” policy, it was “segregation forever” which came to rule.
While many people bemoan and argue against the atrocity of slavery and racial discrimination, ignoring its existence today in the midst of progressivism and modernization is even an even worse insult than the treatement the Arican Americans were accorded to in the past. Illiteracy is less of a problem today, especially in America which showed great leaps in terms of economic, socias, and cultural progress. To make claims that go against what is seen in reality is nothing more than just the building of an illusion that propagates ignorance of the glaring facts, an escape from reality, and a sense of acceptance or passivity that threatens everything that the country has tried hard to gain. Racism is real and present, apparently in many places and in many forms. It has ceased to exist as its roots which were deeply imbedded from the time of slavery has contiued to grow healthy and strong beneath the surface of the ground where it is not visible to the eyes. Today, the society gets to see the rebirth of Jim Crow, that despite the denials of others, either expressed or implied, is destined to reach its fruition. This was not a sudden effect, but instead a product of the gradual growth and nurturing of those who continue to hold on the idea of authority and power by undermining others. This is a serious problem, a cancer that could weaken the society if not treated properly and immediately. In Alexander’s own words, “No task is more urgent for racial justice today than ensuring thatAmerica’s current racial caste system is its last.” (184). It is upon us, and something must be done.
Reference
Alexander, M. (2010). The New Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindedness.”
New York: The New Press. Print.
