Pubdate: Fri, 06 Dec 2013
Source: Tufts Daily (MA Edu)
Copyright: 2013 Tufts Daily
Contact:  http://www.tuftsdaily.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2705
Author: Josh Weiner

AUTHOR SPEAKS ABOUT MASS INCARCERATION AS 'NEW JIM CROW'

Michelle Alexander, a well-known civil rights advocate and associate 
professor of law at Ohio State University, delivered the Center for 
the Study of Race and Democracy's (CSRD) inaugural Gerald Gill 
Keynote Lecture in Cohen Auditorium last night.

Alexander began her lecture by denouncing America's modern-day 
incarceration system, a topic which she discusses in her bestselling 
book, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness."

"I know a lot of people want to say that there is nothing as horrible 
as slavery or Jim Crow that exists today," she said. "What I firmly 
believe is that today - hundreds of years later in this modern, 
supposedly advanced world - there are people struggling in our midst, 
lynched by a system that's profoundly unjust and laced with racism, 
greed, power and control."

Alexander described her experiences working with individuals whose 
lives had been permanently derailed - sometimes justly - due to their 
status as felons. Mass incarceration can also have widespread 
consequences for other generations as well, she said.

"Felon disenfranchisement laws accomplish what poll taxes and 
literacy tests ultimately could not," she said. "A black child born 
today has less of a chance to be raised by two parents than during 
the age of the slave trade due to the mass incarceration system."

According to Alexander, American citizens and lawmakers alike 
continue to disregard the severity of these issues, as well as 
possible means of resolving them.

"We know that people released from prison are subject to a lifetime 
of discrimination and exclusion, but we claim not to know that an 
underpass exists," she said. "We know and we don't know at the same time."

Furthermore, she explained, the fortification of America's prison 
system has come at the expense of developing other institutions which 
would be of far greater value to society.

"Rather than good schools, we have built high-tech prisons," she 
said. "Rather than create jobs, we have put up a mass incarceration system"

This phenomenon of investing in the wrong programs has been prevalent 
in America since the end of the Civil Rights Movement, at which point 
Americans abandoned the political ideals of a just society, according 
to Alexander.

"We could have invested in jobs and training so that people ... could 
make the transition [from] the industrial economy to a service-based 
economy," she said. "Instead, we chose the path of punitiveness and 
discrimination. As a nation, we ended the War on Poverty and began 
the War on Drugs."

The consequences of this decision have endured into the present day.

"When black people ask for jobs and schools, they typically don't get 
them," she said. "The one thing black people can ask for and get are 
prisons. And we have gotten way, way more than we bargained for."

Alexander noted that many of her listeners have been shocked by the 
connections she has made between the mass incarceration system and 
institutional racism. She rejected counter-claims that the dramatic 
surge in America's prison population merely indicates a rise in 
nationwide crime rates, rather than racial impulses.

"We have the highest rates of incarceration in the world," she said. 
"But while rates of incarceration grow, crime rates have fluctuated. 
Sometimes they have gone up, sometimes they have gone down. Crime 
rates are now historically low, but incarceration rates, especially 
black incarceration rates, have soared."

Furthermore, it is impossible to deny that black communities are 
disproportionately hampered by the modern-day legal system and combat 
against drugs, according to Alexander.

"Contrary to popular belief, people of color are no more likely to 
use or sell drugs than white people," she said. "But that's not what 
you'd think from looking into our prisons, which are overflowing with 
black drug offenders."

Alexander said that the Supreme Court and law enforcement 
institutions have not acted to reverse these trends and have 
oftentimes made the situation even worse for black Americans. She 
declared that a modern-day version of the Civil Rights Movement would 
be the only way to curtail the negative impact of the mass 
incarceration system and the War on Drugs.

One of the first key steps in such a movement would be for society to 
change its attitude toward ex-felons, who are permanently disadvantaged.

"Talking and telling the truth has never been enough," she said. "We 
have to be willing to build an underground railroad for people 
released from prison."

The movement has already begun, Alexander noted. She applauded the 
efforts of states, like Massachusetts, which have legalized or 
decriminalized marijuana. Still, there is much work to be done, 
especially in removing overly harsh sentences for possessing and 
consuming illegal drugs.

"A person in possession of crack should not have to go to prison and 
be impeded for life when someone who has the status of an alcoholic 
gets treatment," she said.

Professor of History Peniel Joseph, who is the founding director of 
the CSRD, expressed his enthusiasm for Alexander's appearance.

"Michelle Alexander's book has really transformed the way we are 
having a national discussion on race and mass incarceration," he 
said. "To bring her to campus is really [effective in] expanding that dialogue."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom