The New Jim Crow

Before reading Alexander’s article, I had known about the existence of systematic racism and its effect on the black community. I knew that certain stereotypes existed and that they were negatively impacting the image of black people. I even knew about some of the racial motivations behind the “War on Drugs” and how it led to the arrest of many black people. However, Alexander’s idea of mass incarceration being a new type of racial caste system was shocking to me. Alexander’s points out how racial caste systems have evolved in America over time, originating with slavery, moving on to Jim Crow, and finally now with mass incarceration. Each time, she notes that the new caste system keeps black people out of power while still following what was then socially acceptable at the time. For example, after slavery, it was illegal to enslave people, but new laws were kept to keep white people in power which eventually led to Jim Crow. Currently, it is not considered acceptable in society for legal systems to be at all biased against a race, but certain laws and policies, such as the war on drugs, are made specifically to discriminate against certain groups of people. These laws allow for the mass incarceration of black people which leads to stereotypes being made about the black community, and allowing for the marginalization of an entire group of people. In the documentary Pushout: the Criminalization of Black Girls in School, the effects of mass incarceration are seen. Black girls are treated as adults and are much more likely to be harshly disciplined for their actions than their peers. They have to endure psychological trauma and are criminalized due to the perceptions that exist about them. Alexander would argue that these perceptions stem from mass incarceration. While I believe that it would be foolish to say that black people do not enjoy more freedoms now than they did during the era of Jim Crow or slavery, Alexander’s points convinced of the existence of a new racial caste system. I believe that this racial caste system will be just as difficult (if not more) to exterminate as Jim Crow and slavery. This is due to the fact that many people do not even recognize this racial caste system and its existence due to events such as Barack Obama becoming president and many black people gaining stature in today’s society. To counter this, Alexander brings up the point that there have always been “black success stories” and how those do not reflect the black community as a whole. However, these “success stories” combined with the current notion that today’s society is “colorblind” allows for this new racial caste system to be more resilient to change. The current racial caste system is a self-feeding system (when more black people get arrested, the negative stereotype of them gets spread more) that will be impossible to dismantle without the recognition of its existence.