Jim Crow was designed to flout them. The New Jim Crow is such a book. View 13th__New_Jim_Crow_Reflection from SOCIALWORK 122 at Fresno Pacific University. Written by Ms. DuVernay and Spencer Averick, “13TH” picks up Ms. Alexander’s baton and sprints through the history of American race and incarceration with seamless economy. Even though drug use and distribution are MORE widespread in white populations than in populations of people of color, target the enforcement of drug laws at people of color. - [Voiceover] So in the last video we started talking about the system of Jim Crow segregation, which was a legal form of segregation, and denial of voting rights or disenfranchisement, which characterized the American south from approximately 1877 to 1954. After looking at a pamphlet, proclaiming that Drug War is the new Jim Crow, the author ignored it as a theory promoted by a bunch of conspiracy guys. The book discusses race-related issues specific to African-American males and mass incarcerationin the United States, but Alexander noted that the discrimination faced by African-American males is prevalent among other minorities and socio-economically disadvantaged populations. The New Jim Crow And Ava Duvernay 's Documentary 13th 1465 Words6 Pages As a legacy of the Civil Rights Movement, blatant racism is no longer viewed as acceptable social behavior. Law enforcement has almost carte blanche to stop people in cars and in the streets all the while claiming it is not for racist reasons. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. I would recommend them both. As one of “the three major racialized systems of control adopted in the United States to date,” it ensures “the subordinate status of a group defined largely by race.” Under the old Jim Crow, state laws instituted different rules for blacks and whites, segregating them under the doctrine of separate but equal. marijuana and opioids) becomes epidemic in white populations, legalize the use or decrease the punishments, including offering drug treatment instead of incarceration. The New Jim Crow is a stunning account of the rebirth of a caste-like system in the United States, one that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class status—denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement. It’s like being in a room with the smartest people around, all intent on rocking your world. People poured out of the building; many Presently, the United States has more people in prison per capita (752 out of every 100,000) than any nation in the world by a substantial margin. So denying people the vote isn’t preventative, but punitive. Angela Davis, scholar and activist, in “13TH.”, Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House, who speaks in “13TH.”. End all laws that deny ex-felons the right to vote. Yet Ms. DuVernay — best known for “Selma,” and a filmmaker whose art has become increasingly inseparable from her activism — has made a movie that’s as timely as the latest Black Lives Matter protest and the approaching presidential election. It is unconstitutional for slavery to exist in any form or by any name.”. Create stiff, mandatory sentencing laws that encourage people of color to plead guilty to lesser charges, even when innocent. Even after the 13th Amendment abolished enslavement, racially-discriminatory measures like the post-Reconstruction Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws, along with state-sanctioned labor practices like convict leasing, continued to force many Black Americans into involuntary labor for years. If I was living at that time, I would have never tolerated anything like that.’ And the truth is, we are living at this time. Both The New Jim Crow and 13th explain how slavery developed from existing socioeconomic conditions and needs. On April 17, 2020, Netflix released the film for free on YouTube. Conversations and debates about race-much less racial caste-are frequently dismissed as yesterday's news, not relevant to the current era. This would also increase the number of people of color in the jury pool. In summary, the mass incarceration (the New Jim Crow): Uses the War on Drugs to arrest large numbers of black men, through strong financial incentives and legal protection of discretion that may be racially biased. As a guest expert interviewee, Alexander described the evolution of racial disparity in the United States of America through its evolution from slavery, the Jim Crow laws, the War on Drugs, to mass incarceration. Therefore books like Michelle Alexander's THE NEW JIM CROW and Ava DuVernay's 13TH should have focused on the incarceration of black women just as intensely as they did the incarceration of black men. Because, as she sifts through American history, you grasp the larger implications of her argument: The United States did not just criminalize a select group of black people. Law enforcement has almost carte blanche to stop people in cars and in the streets all the while claiming it is not for racist reasons. The New Jim Crow is that rare first book that has received rave reviews and won many awards and prizes; it and Alexander have been featured in countless national radio and television media outlets. Alexander appeared in the 2016 documentary 13th directed by Ava DuVernay. Permanently marginalize millions of people of color as second class citizens AND blame them for their plight. Ended. Ms. DuVernay forcefully and sorrowfully challenges that confident assertion, tracing the history of systems of racial control from the years after the abolition of slavery all the way to George Zimmerman’s speaking to a police dispatcher about the 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. In its first 30 minutes, the documentary touches on chattel slavery; D. W. Griffith’s film “The Birth of a Nation”; Emmett Till; the civil rights movement; the Civil Rights Act of 1964; Richard M. Nixon; and Ronald Reagan’s declaration of the war on drugs. The New Jim Crow is a birdcage, a set of structural arrangements that subjugates a race politically, socially, and economically. We are one of the few countries in the world with this prohibition. (Light sentences for white cocaine users and stiff sentences for black crack users.). The New Jim Crow is a birdcage, a set of structural arrangements that subjugates a race politically, socially, and economically. Treat drug abuse as an important public health issue like alcohol use and abuse. ( Log Out / As the amendment reads, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Unfortunately, in a white dominated society, this loophole has allowed discrimination to move from institutional slavery to institutional incarceration. The New Jim Crow tells a truth our nation has been reluctant to face. Praised by Harvard Law professor Lani Guinier as "brave and bold," this book directly challenges the notion that the election of Barack Obama signals a new era of colorblindness. Use the news and media to create a cultural perception of people of color as criminally inclined and thereby justify the disproportionate number of people of color in jails and prisons. The system we have was designed is giving us the result for which it was intended – one out of every three black men can expect to go to prison during their lifetime. The war on drugs was always a war on people of color. Decriminalize most drug offenses, especially those for possession of small amounts of drugs. Jim Crow came from the North. “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.”. Both The New Jim Crow and 13th explain how slavery developed from existing socioeconomic conditions and needs. Make decreasing the number of people incarcerated a national goal. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. 13th . She continues in her job as a civil rights lawyer, but in due course realises that the statement was actually true. In response, The New Jim Crow is an effort to stimulate popular dialogue about the criminal justice system as a tool that creates and perpetuates racial hierarchy in the United States (p. 16). He pops up in a section on the rise off mass incarceration during the 1980s that’s tied to crack cocaine and the racial gap in arrests and sentencing. The documentary makes the case that those drug busts, Jim Crow laws and segregation are all variations of domination of black America. Millions of black and brown people in the US are languishing behind bars because of the Drug war that was unleashed during the … Employ primarily white, poorly educated men as guards. His performance became a huge hit across the country and initiated a new form of American popular culture through music and theatrical performance. Dismantling Jim Crow laws was a major goal for Martin Luther King Jr., pictured above marching in Washington in 1963, and for the civil rights movement. Ms. Alexander has been criticized for oversimplifying the origins of mass incarceration in “The New Jim Crow.” This may account for why Ms. DuVernay, in perhaps a bid to pre-empt similar criticism, does include a few divergent voices, including the conservative lobbyist Grover Norquist, who frankly comes off as an exemplar of blinkered power and racial myopia. Every so often, the animation underscores an interviewee’s point, as in one sequence in which the word “freedom” morphs into flying birds and then the Stars and Stripes and then a slave ship. While American justice is often portrayed as colorblind, both the documentary and the book expose how racial bias has influenced the establishment and growth of our present criminal justice system. ( Log Out / Some (like a galvanizing Angela Davis) are more effective and persuasive than others; at least one — Newt Gingrich, speaking startling truth to power — is a jaw-dropper. Black Lives Matter and the Influence of Carol Marks, Reflections of A Recovering Racist – Note To My White Self. The New Jim Crow was an undeniable phenomenon when it came out. DuVernay, in 13th, and Michelle Alexander in The New Jim Crow, show how racism, operating through the criminal legal system, adapts over time to cultural norms while consistently producing the same outcomes. Now, with the United States having 25 percent of the world’s prisoners, a disproportionate number of whom are black, mass incarceration has become “metaphorically, the new Jim Crow.”. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. 7. "Racism against black people" is not and never has been synonymous with "Racism against black men." The New Jim Crow' Michelle Alexander* The subject that I intend to explore today is one that most Americans seem content to ignore. As a guest expert interviewee, Alexander described the evolution of racial disparity in the United States of America through its evolution from slavery, the Jim Crow laws, the War on Drugs, to mass incarceration. Roots of racial disparities are seen through a new lens in this film that explores the origins of housing segregation in the Minneapolis area. It shakes you up, but it also challenges your ideas about the intersection of race, justice and mass incarceration in the United States, subject matter that could not sound less cinematic. ... new president Rutherford B. Hayes … They make a compelling case that much of this – while presented as a war on crime or drugs – was intentionally focused on communities of color. It criminalized black people as a whole, a process that, in addition to destroying untold lives, effectively transferred the guilt for slavery from the people who perpetuated it to the very people who suffered through it. The New Jim Crow was an undeniable phenomenon when it came out. Over the past two weeks, I’ve both watched the Netflix documentary “13th” and read the book it was based on – “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander. My question is why anyone would think taking away someone’s right to vote is a just act. Note: This meetup will reference both the book, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" by Michelle Alexander (Free PDF here from Vanderbilt University: PDF link) and the film, The 13th, currently playing on Netflix. White people are seldom portrayed as drug dealers, even though whites (6.6%) are more likely than people of color (5%) to actually deal drugs. Maintain a police force largely dominated by white, poorly educated men with both intentional and latent racial bias. Here DuVernay returns to the 13th Amendment and makes the case that the system cannot be dealt with by making small changes. With few exceptions, the movie’s voices — including most of its several dozen interviewees — speak in concert. Maintain laws that allow prosecutors – who are predominantly white – from excluding people of color from juries. (“13TH” opens the New York Film Festival on Friday; it will be in theaters and on Netflix beginning on Oct. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. A black man was on his knees in the gutter, hands cuffed behind his back, as several police officers stood around him talking, joking, and ignoring his human existence. People poured out of the building; many stared for a moment at the black man cowering in the street, and then averted their gaze. Denying people the right to vote after they’ve paid their “debt” to society is unjust and, within the present system, inordinately denies the vote to people of color. When types of drug use (i.e. ... the 13th Amendment formally abolished slavery in the United States. Alexander explains that ten years ago, she was suspicious of the claim that mass incarceration was a “new Jim Crow,” but that while working on racial justice advocacy at the American Civil Liberties Union she came to change her mind. They both begin with the premise that the 13th Amendment, while ending slavery, left open a loophole which has ultimately led to a criminal justice system that systematically relegates large numbers of people of color to second class citizenship and marginalization. Jim, I suspect you’re correct. Ms. DuVernay is working within a familiar documentary idiom that weaves original, handsomely shot talking-head interviews with well-researched, occasionally surprising and gravely disturbing archival material. Buy New Jim Crow (10th Anniversary Edition), The: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness 10th Anniversary ed. With dazzling candor, legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." Finally, the documentary and book make a compelling argument for the reformation of our criminal justice system as essential to addressing systemic racism and empowering minorities economically and politically. Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness Michelle Alexander. “ The New Jim Crow challenges the civil rights community—and all of us—to place mass incarceration at the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in … Similar to the documentary, 13th, The New Jim Crow states that media often displays people of colour or black people as dangerous criminals (Alexander,28). The 13th Amendment, ratified ... century the country experienced its first “prison boom,” legal scholar Michelle Alexander writes in her book The New Jim Crow. Yet killing someone while driving drunk has far lighter sentences than many fairly minor drug offenses. Powerful, infuriating and at times overwhelming, Ava DuVernay’s documentary “13TH” will get your blood boiling and tear ducts leaking. The New Jim Crow, the 13th Amendment and the "War on Drugs" Image from meetup.com. Chattel slavery, convict leasing, Jim Crow, mass incarceration, broken windows, predictive policing and the surveillance state. by Alexander, Michelle (ISBN: 9781620971932) from Amazon's Book Store. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Alexander is a visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary and an opinion columnist for the New York Times. Use a mostly minority prison workforce as slave labor for industry and manufacturing. Enculturate the image of people of color as criminal and deserving of greater attention and punishment so that even people of color perpetuate the myth. Change ). Speed is one reason — you’re racing through history witness by witness, ghastly statistic by statistic — but you’re also charged up by how the movie’s voices rise and converge. “He’s got his hand in his waistband,” we hear Mr. Zimmerman say shortly before fatally shooting Mr. Martin. Reading The New Jim Crow, however, I have comprehended the corrupt criminal justice system and racism experienced by people of colour. Now, ten-plus printings later, the long-awaited paperback version of the book Lani Guinier calls "brave and bold," and Pulitzer Prize–winner David Levering Lewis calls "stunning," will at last be available. I personally think that losing one’s right to vote is the last thing on a criminal’s mind. The New Jim Crow was initially published with a modest first printing and reasonable expectations for a hard-hitting book on a tough topic. (Mr. Averick also edited the movie.) Alexander's central premise, from which the book derives its title, is that "mass incarceratio… If you knew that committing a crime, and getting caught and convicted of a felony, you would lose your right to vote, would it make a difference? Create “three strikes and you’re out” laws that can send people to prison for lengthy sentences for minor infractions. It sounds exhausting, but it’s electrifying. ( Log Out / When “The New Jim Crow” came out, a decade ago, you said that you wrote it for “the person I was ten years ago.” Take me back to those times … The new Jim Crow James Mulholland A sixty year old white man and father of a thirteen year old black daughter reflecting on his latent racism and white privilege. The New Jim Crow was born.” ― Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. It landed on bestseller lists, was discussed in the media endlessly, made Alexander an activist-scholar hero, and led to many subsequent handbooks and publications on how to bring its prescriptions for a … ), In her book, Ms. Alexander (the most charismatic of the movie’s interviewees) argues that mass incarceration exists on a continuum with slavery and Jim Crow. “Jump, Jim Crow” Thomas Dartmouth Rice, a white man, was born in New York City in … However, the absence of blatant individual racism cannot be equated to the absence of structural racial discrimination. immediately reminded of the harsh realities of the New Jim Crow. Upon release, create parole restrictions and continuing punishments that make it extremely difficult for ex-felons to find a job and housing, thereby sending many of them back to prison for parole violations rather than for new crimes. Create a bail system that frees affluent whites while less affluent people of color languish in jail. Sun 28 May 2017 Sunday 28 May 2017 12:30 PM - 7:30 PM . Underfund public defenders so people of color are seldom given adequate representation. “And he’s a black male.” When this documentary reaches its culmination, which features graphic videos of one after another black man being shot by police, Ms. DuVernay’s rigorously controlled deconstruction of crime, punishment and race in the United States has become a piercing, keening cry. A black man was on his knees in the gutter, hands cuffed behind his back, as several police officers stood around him talking, joking, and ignoring his human existence.