The overall goal of Michelle Alexander's book, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, is to highlight the issues that African Americans have faced over the years and continue to face today. Mass incarceration has been adapted from earlier generations so that it works into the current one, which has seen significant advancements. Due to these threats, the majority of the black and brown population in the United States has been denied access to fundamental rights. The major problems trace their way back from the beginning of slavery where the Africans were shipped to work in the plantations of the rich whites in the United States with most of them being denied their basic rights. The major problems trace their way back from the beginning of slavery where the Africans were shipped to work in the plantations of the rich whites in the United States. The study reveals that, Africans were found to be the most suitable to work in the plantations due to their energy, illiteracy and most probably their color (Alexander, 2012). However, slavery came to pass with time after a massive war took place in the whole United States. The Reconstruction Era helped to completely eliminate slavery among most of the Africans living in the United States and especially the Southern States. Nevertheless, with all these achievements being made, the whites still looked for other ways to oppress the blacks. As such, they feared that the blacks could one day rise against them and overcome all their strengths and attempts to govern the South. This then led to formation of many strict laws that affected mostly the black people and their families, which then led to the birth of the Jim Crow (Zuckerberg, 2015).
Nonetheless, due to the change around the world, these forms of oppression among the African Americans have gradually camouflaged and come up in a new form that is not easily identifiable by any person without looking and analyzing them critically. The book mainly focuses on the theme, redeeming our racialized systems. This is after a critical analysis on how most of the institutions operate, most often, biased to one racial group than the other.
Analysis
As it is outlined in the topic, mass incarceration rises to be the new Jim Crow in this current generation where people seem not to be bothered with each other’s race (Zuckerberg, 2015). Racism is strongly practiced in the United States and the effect is felt by the African Americans. The African Americans found themselves in the nation after their great grandfathers were taken to work for the rich white men who paid little cash or even no cash after all their labor in the plantations (Moore, 2017). The blacks and the browns have all found themselves being categorized in one group so that whenever an individual or a small group of them commits a crime, the blame falls on the whole population. Most of the blacks have even found themselves being denied the right to citizenship yet they have lived in the country for decades. Moreover, up to date, some of the individuals, the African Americans, have seen themselves missing the process of voting where they need to elect the leaders who would later make laws for them. This is because of the many strict rules that the individuals have to pass through or accomplish in order to be allowed to practice the activity (McCorkel, 2016).
Likewise, other than the criminal justice laws that have been passed by the American Congress, there are a number of laws and policies that accompany them making it hard for the ex-prisoners to have a swift and flowing life in the United States. Therefore, with drug abuse being one of the major problems affecting the current generation, both the whites and the blacks fall a victim of this. The youth suffer major penalties, however, the punishment seems to fall on the young blacks compared to their counterparts, the whites (Alexander, 2012). The African Americans are always charged highly in the courts, with the option of bargaining leading to an addition of some extra time in prison (Moore, 2017). The courts are always lenient to the white criminals although they are always the most affected by these crimes. Most of the people feel racism is coming to an end but in real sense, there are many cases that are happening behind bars. The blacks are normally sentenced for long, even in cases where they have committed some minor crimes. All these show how the new Jim Crow in creeping or has already crept into the American society. Besides, after serving all these punishments in prisons, paroles or jails, these individuals return into the society completely helpless. The governing bodies have put some strict rules in place, denying the ex-prisoners most of their basic rights (Alexander, 2012). However, this only happens to the blacks as their white counterparts resume to their activities and continue enjoying their rights. Although the systems have come up with a number of regulations that reduce the period of imprisonment, this is of no benefit to the black man in the United States. In this regard, they will be forced to abide by the rules set whenever they are released. The reduction in the period of imprisonment for the drug abuse cases is because of the high costs incurred by the government at times when the economy is low. Therefore, once released from the prisons, these African Americans are barred by the law from doing almost everything including attending schools (McCorkel, 2016). They are completely wiped out of the economy and any slight mistake could lead them back to the prisons. Civil rights activists have even encountered many challenges due to the resistance they face from the government hence making it hard to eliminate this new Jim Crow (Becker, 2013).
However, there is need to come together, join hands and end this problem mostly affecting the African Americans. One of them being policy reforms, the policies currently in place should be critically looked into to identify the specific areas which should be changed so as to avoid biasness. This does not come easily, for it will require some external force and corporation from both parties so that the laws and policies can be reviewed. Therefore, for that to happen, the top government officials have to eliminate biasness or rather be forced to do so by the civil rights activists. This should be done to correct without bias the lives of the helpless blacks and involve them in dialogues whose fruits have to be enjoyed by all the American citizens regardless of the race (Alexander, 2012). Cross-examinations should be made to remove all those restrictions by the law and the constitution should further be amended so that all citizens receive equal services. Human rights organizations should stand and stop the racial discrimination because being black or white does not make a person special in any way (Becker, 2013).
Conclusion
The book has clearly outlined and traced the origin of mass incarceration, where it started long time ago during the colonial periods. This racial discrimination has been transforming itself with the change in generation and technological advancement. It shows that, whenever change occurs in the society, racism seems to desist but unknowingly erupts in some unique way. This has gone on in the United States for some time but it is high time that such evil acts should be resisted. Owing to the fact that all human beings are equal here on earth regardless of the positions they hold, their height, gender and more importantly, the skin color, then this should be treated with zero tolerance.
Reference
Alexander, M. (2012). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. The New Press.
Becker, B. (2013). Blackmon, Douglas A. Slavery by Another Name. The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II. Wacquant, Loïc. Punishing the Poor. The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity. Muhammad, Khalil Gibran. The Condemnation of Blackness. Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America. McCorkel, J. (2016). Book Review: Invisible Men: Mass Incarceration and the Myth of Black Progress.
Moore, R. (2017). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. CRC Press.
Zuckerberg, M. (2015). THE NEW JIM CROW: MASS INCARCERATION IN THE AGE OF COLORBLINDNESS.
