Table 1

U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States:2012

Prison and Jail Rates

Rate in 1980 Prison Jail

182,288 319,598

Rate in 2009 Prison Jail

760,400 1,524,513Notes: African Americans are incarcerated six times more thanWhites. African Americans make up about 1 million of the nearly 2 million plus incarcerated in America today.

THE NEW JIM CROW: MASS INCARCERATION IN THE AGE OF COLORBLINDNESS

-Associate Professor of Law at Ohio State University

-Education at Vanderbilt University and Stanford University

-Focus- Civil Rights and Liberties and Criminal Law

-Clerk for Justice Blackmun on the United States Supreme Court and Chief Judge Mikva on the United State Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. MASS INCARCERATION

CHALLENGES 1. Michelle Alexander is paranoid concerning racism

2. Can Alexander actually prove that the incarceration system is the new Jim Crow?

3. Jim Crow is dead.

4. Did the idea of Jim Crow come into being when the settlers came to “America” and labeled the First Inhabitants “savages”?

5. Racism is gone. It’s 2013 (assumptions)

6. Are some laws/acts coded for a specific ethnicity or are the laws a warning for all?

7. Is the system (jails and prisons/laws) targeting African Americans more than other races?

HISTORICAL CHALLENGES

1. Racism in the beginning (Settlers and Native Americans)

2. Laws and Legislatures (Section I: 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.

Section II:“Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” )

3. Law Enforcers

4. Old Jim Crow

5.Stereotypes

6. The Mindset of a people

CHALLENGES AND EXAMPLES

These challenges range from racism, lawmakers, Jim Crow, stereotypes, and law enforcement.What are some examples of these problems?• Racism?• Law enforcement and law makers?• Jim Crow New or old?• Stereotypes? • Law enforcement?• Examples.

FACES OF OPPRESSIONThere are 5 faces of oppression but the three that I want to hit

on which are more dominant in this case are powerlessness,

cultural imperialism, and marginalization. These are the three

that see tying to the listed issues more than anything.

What are these and what do they mean?• Powerlessness- What is happening is that some people have

power while some others do not.• Cultural imperialism- this involves taking the culture of the

ruling class and establishing it at the norm. Haven’t we done

this before?• Marginalization- This is the act of relegating or confronting a

group of people to a lower social standing or outer limit or

edge of society.

EXAMPLES OF FACES OF OPPRESSION?• Powerlessness. What I think of when I see this are the lower class

black males who are being incarcerated at ridiculous rates, exposure to disrespectful treatment because of lowered status. Example, pulled over because of being stereotyped then you have searching the vehicle finding a little marijuana or something and boom jail time felony no rights, that is powerlessness to me.

• Cultural Imperialism. This is where we establish culture of ruling class as a norm. Examples of this are things such as the Jefferson writing where it was made whites above all and African’s weren’t even considered people, cultural imperialism at its finest. Once a norm is established it is hard to change.

• Marginalization. This happens when we put people at lower social standing. Examples, Government housing.

THE NEW JIM CROW: FACT OR FICTION?

FACT:

Throughout the different challenges such as racism, slavery,

lawmakers and law enforcement throughout all of these stereotypes

and all issues lead to one definition, oppression. We are making these

people powerless, marginalizing them and using cultural imperialism

to keep the white race at the top. We have to change this issue that

way we can be true to our “by the people for the people” mentality that

we were supposed to be founded on.

What do you think?

THE NEW JIM CROW: MASS INCARCERATION IN THE AGE OF COLORBLINDNESS