New Jim Crow Who Shined A Light On Mass Incarceration

Michelle Alexander is a civil rights litigator and legal scholar whose 2010 book New Jim Crow who shined a light on mass incarceration. Alexander s New Jim Crow is a very informative book on what Alexander s calls America’s latest racial system. The newest racial system to Alexander is mass incarceration. I do not believe there is a New Jim Crow system operating in the U.S. The reason I feel this way is because of majority of the people who are in jail are not African American, they are white. In America there is no system set in place to deliberately disfranchise only African Americans, like Jim Crow did. I believe it is an inequality problem which makes it seem as if African Americas are being purposely discriminated against. Alexander argument is the War on Drugs was purposely started to mass incarcerate African Americans. With the new Drug War, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 was passed. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act punished crack cocaine a hundred times harder than powder cocaine. Crack and powder cocaine are the same drug, however different effects on the human body. According to the US Department of Justice, crake cocaine has a more psychological effect than powder, which leads to more people becoming addicted to the drug and heavier usage of the drug. Crack cocaine caused a great deal of violence, family deterioration, abuse, and neglect. Powder cocaine did cause abuse and violence, however powder cocaine make people want to go to the club, dance, drink, and have