Home / Authors / Michelle Alexander

Michelle Alexander

Michelle Alexander Quotes

Professor

Michelle Alexander is a distinguished professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley. Born on October 7, 1967, she is recognized for her expertise in criminal justice and civil rights. Alexander has authored numerous articles and books on the subject of mass incarceration in the United States and its effects on African American communities.

Filter quotes by topic

All People Prison Mass Incarceration Incarceration Drug Black Jim Crow Criminals Mass Men States Community War On Drugs War Race Racism Color Law Castes Crime

Famous Michelle Alexander Quotes

“All people make mistakes. All of us are sinners. All of us are criminals. All of us violate the law at some point in our lives. In fact, if the worst thing you have ever done is speed ten miles over the speed limit on the freeway, you have put yourself and others at more risk of harm than someone smoking marijuana in the privacy of his or her living room. Yet there are people in the United States serving life sentences for first-time drug offenses, something virtually unheard of anywhere else in the world.”

Source: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

“If we want to do more than just end mass incarceration—if we want to put an end to the history of racial caste in America—we must lay down our racial bribes, join hands with people of all colors who are not content to wait for change to trickle down, and say to those who would stand in our way: Accept all of us or none.”

People Ifs Way Want Ends Hands America Waiting Accepting Color Mass Down And Lays Bribe Castes Incarceration Mass Incarceration Trickle Down

Book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

Source: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

“For reasons that have stunningly little to do with crime or crime rates, we, as a nation, have chosen to lock up more than two million people behind bars. Millions more are on probation or parole, or branded felons for life and thus locked into a permanent second-class status.”

People Littles Two Reason Nations Behinds Class Millions Crime Rate Bars Chosen Permanent Locked Locks Parole Branded Crime Rates Felons Lock Up Probation Class Status

Author:Michelle Alexander

“The mass incarceration of poor people of color, particularly black men, has emerged as a new caste system, one specifically designed to address the social, economic, and political challenges of our time.”

People Men Political Social Black Challenges Poor Economic Color Mass Our Time Addresses Poor People Castes Incarceration Caste System Mass Incarceration

Author:Michelle Alexander

“Most people seem to assume that this dramatic surge in imprisonment was due to a corresponding surge in crime, particularly violent crime.”

People Seems Crime Assuming Dues Violent Dramatic Imprisonment Corresponding Violent Crimes

Author:Michelle Alexander

“What has changed since the collapse of Jim Crow has less to do with the basic structure of our society than with the language we use to justify it. In the era of colorblindness, it is no longer socially permissible to use race, explicitly, as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. So we don't. Rather than rely on race, we use our criminal justice system to label people of color "criminals" and then engage in all the practices we supposedly left behind.”

“For African American children, in particular, the odds are extremely high that they will have a parent or loved one, a relative, who has either spent time behind bars or who has acquired a criminal record and thus is part of the under-caste - the group of people who can be legally discriminated against for the rest of their lives. For many African American children, their fathers, and increasingly their mothers, are behind bars. It is very difficult for them to visit. Many people are held hundreds or even thousands of miles away from home.”

People Children Home Mother Father Parent Difficult Behinds Records Groups Particular Criminals Miles Bars African American Relative Loved Ones Odds Miles Away Castes Away From Home

Author:Michelle Alexander

“The wave of punitiveness that washed over the United States with the rise of the drug war and the get tough movement really flooded our schools. Schools, caught up in this maelstrom, began viewing children as criminals or suspects, rather than as young people with an enormous amount of potential struggling in their own ways and their own difficult context to make it and hopefully thrive. We began viewing the youth in schools as potential violators rather than as children needing our guidance.”

“The mythology around colorblindness leads people to imagine that if poor kids of color are failing or getting locked up in large numbers, it must be something wrong with them. It leads young kids of color to look around and say: "There must be something wrong with me, there must be something wrong with us. Is there something inherent, something different about me, about us as a people, that leads us to fail so often, that leads us to live in these miserable conditions, that leads us to go in and out of prison?"”

People Ifs Looks Different Kids Young Poor Numbers Imagine Failing Conditions Color Prison Mythology Miserable Locked Imagine That Inherent Large Numbers Locked Up

Author:Michelle Alexander

“I think this mythology - that we're all beyond race, of course our police officers aren't racist, of course our politicians don't mean any harm to people of color - this idea that we're beyond all that (so it must be something else) makes it difficult for young people as well as the grown-ups to be able to see clearly and honestly the truth of what's going on. It makes it difficult to see that the backlash against the Civil Rights Movement manifested itself in the form of mass incarceration, in the form of defunding and devaluing schools serving kids of color and all the rest.”

“Of course, no one should be trapped in bad schools or bad neighborhoods. No one. But I think we need to be asking a larger question: How do we change the norm, the larger context that people seem to accept as a given? Are we so thoroughly resigned to what "is" that we cannot even begin a serious conversation about how to create what ought to be?”

People Thinking Needs Should Seems School Courses Given Accepting Serious Ought Conversation Asking Neighborhood Trapped Norm Resigned

Author:Michelle Alexander

“We're foolish if we think we're going to end mass incarceration unless we are willing to deal with the reality that huge percentages of poor people are going to remain jobless, locked out of the mainstream economy, unless and until they have a quality education that prepares them well for the new economy. There has got to be much more collaboration between the two movements and a greater appreciation for the work of the advocates in each community. It's got to be a movement that's about education, not incarceration - about jobs, not jails.”

“It's important to teach students about the reality of the system, that it is in fact the case that they are being targeted unfairly, that the rules have been set up in a way that authorize unfair treatment of them, and how difficult it is to challenge these laws in the courts. We need to teach them how our politics have changed in recent years, how there has been, in fact, a backlash. But we need to couple that information with stories of how people in the past have challenged these kinds of injustices, and the role that youth have played historically in those struggles.”

“I think it's important to encourage young people to tell their own stories and to speak openly about their own experiences with the criminal justice system and the experiences of their family. We need to ensure that the classroom environment is a supportive one so that the shame and stigma can be dispelled.”

People Thinking Needs Important Stories Young Speak Justice Environment Shame Criminals Classroom Supportive Stigma Justice System Criminal Justice Criminal Justice System

Author:Michelle Alexander

“Just providing information about how bad things are, or the statistics and data on incarceration by themselves, does lead to more depression and resignation and is not empowering. The information has to be presented in a way that's linked to the piece about encouraging students to think critically and creatively about how they might respond to injustice, and how young people have responded to injustice in the past.”

People Thinking Way Doe Might Past Young Pieces Information Students Injustice Data Empowering Statistics Bad Things Providing Linked Resignation Incarceration

Author:Michelle Alexander

“I think it's critically important for people to understand that this system of mass incarceration governs not just those who find themselves in prison on any given day, but also all those who are in jail, on probation or parole, as well as all those who are just months away from being locked up again because they are unable to find work or housing due to their criminal record.”

People Thinking Wells Important Given Records Months Mass Prison Dues Criminals Jail Locked Housing Locked Up Incarceration Parole Mass Incarceration Probation

Author:Michelle Alexander

“Most Americans violate drug laws in their lifetime, but the enemy in this war has been racially defined. Not by accident, the drug war has been waged almost exclusively in poor communities of color, even though studies have consistently shown - for decades - the people of color are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites.”

People Has Beens War Use Law Community Poor Enemy Study Color Drug Sells Lifetime Accidents Decades Defined Illegal Consistently War On Drugs Illegal Drugs Drug Laws

Author:Michelle Alexander

“Now that's hard for many people to believe, given that the media image of a drug dealer is a black kid standing on the street corner with his pants sagging down.”

People Believe Hard Kids Given Black Streets Media Drug Standing Corners Pants Dealer Drug Dealers Street Corners Sagging

Author:Michelle Alexander

“Defenders of the system will counter by saying this drug war has been aimed at violent crime. But that is not the case. The overwhelming majority of people arrested in the drug war have been arrested for relatively minor, non-violent drug offenses.”

People Has Beens War Cases Crime Drug Majority Violent Overwhelming Minors Offense Arrested Defenders War On Drugs Non Violent Violent Crimes

Author:Michelle Alexander

“For the rest of your life you must check the box on employment applications asking the dreaded question: "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?" And once you check that box, the odds are sky high that your application is going straight to the trash. Hundreds of professional licenses are off-limits to people convicted of felonies.”

People Sky Limits Asking Boxes Checks Employment Application Odds License Trash Rest Of Your Life Felony Licenses Sky High

Author:Michelle Alexander

“Public housing projects as well as private landlords are free to deny housing to people with criminal records. In fact, you don't even have to be convicted. You can be denied housing - or your family evicted - just based on an arrest.”

People Wells Facts Records Projects Deny Criminals Our Family Denied Housing Landlord Public Housing

Author:Michelle Alexander

“Discrimination in public benefits is also perfectly legal. Under federal law, people convicted of drug felonies are deemed ineligible even for food stamps.”

People Law Drug Benefits Discrimination Stamps Food Stamps Felony

Author:Michelle Alexander

“What are people released from prison expected to do? How are they expected to survive? Can't get a job, locked out of housing, and even food stamps may be off limits. Well, apparently what we expect them to do is to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars in fees, fines, court costs, and back child support (which continues to accrue while you are in prison).”

People Wells May Children Jobs Pay Support Fine Cost Limits Court Dollars Prison Expected Locked Stamps Housing Fees Food Stamps

Author:Michelle Alexander

“What does this system seem designed to do? As I see it, it seems designed to send people right back to prison, which is what happens about 70% of the time.”

People Doe Seems Happens Prison

Author:Michelle Alexander

“Millions of people are unable to vote due to felony convictions with the highest rates among black men. People in prison are denied the right to vote in 48 states, and while we accept that as normal in the United States, in other western democracies people in prison do have the right to vote.”

People Men States Black United Accepting Millions United States Democracy Normal Highest Vote Prison Western Rate Conviction Dues Denied Right To Vote Felony

Author:Michelle Alexander

“In fact, in some countries there are actually voting drives conducted in prison! But here in the U.S., we seem to take the idea of democracy a bit less seriously and people are denied the right to vote not only when they are in prison, but also upon release in many states.”

People Ideas Country States Facts Seems Bits Democracy Vote Prison Release Voting Denied Right To Vote

Author:Michelle Alexander

“People on probation and parole are typically denied the right to vote, and in eleven states people are denied the right to vote even after completion of their sentences.”

People States Vote Sentences Denied Eleven Completion Right To Vote Parole Probation

Author:Michelle Alexander

“Many people don't realize that financial incentives have been built into the drug war that guarantee that law enforcement will continue to arrest extraordinary numbers of people, particularly in poor communities of color, for minor drug offenses that get ignored on the other side of town.”

“In the war on drugs, state and state law enforcement agencies have been rewarded in cash by the federal government - through programs like the Edward Byrne Memorial Grant program - for the sheer numbers of people arrested for drug offenses.”

People Has Beens War States Government Law Numbers Drug Program Agency Grants Cash Sheer Offense Federal Government Law Enforcement Enforcement Memorial Arrested War On Drugs

Author:Michelle Alexander

“If the drug war was waged in those communities it would spark such outrage that the war would end overnight. This literal war is waged in segregated, impoverished communities defined largely by race, and the targets are the most vulnerable, least powerful people in our society.”

People Ifs War Ends Community Powerful Race Drug Vulnerable Defined Our Society Target Sparks Outrage Literal War On Drugs

Author:Michelle Alexander

“Of course in this age of colorblindness, a time when we have supposedly moved "beyond race," we as a nation would feel very uncomfortable if only black people were sent to jail for drug offenses. We seem comfortable with 90 percent of the people arrested and convicted of drug offenses in some states being African American, but if the figure was 100 percent, the veil of colorblindness would be lost.”

People Ifs Feels States Seems Would Be Age Courses Lost Nations Black Race Figures Drug Comfortable Percent Moved African American Uncomfortable Jail Black People Offense Veils Arrested

Author:Michelle Alexander

“The fact that people of all colors have been ensnared by the drug war helps to preserve the system as a whole from serious critique, as it creates the impression - at a glance - that the war is being waged in an unbiased manner, even when nothing could be further from the truth.”

People Has Beens War Whole Facts Helping Color Serious Drug Impression Preserves Glances Critique War On Drugs Unbiased

Author:Michelle Alexander

“The prison-industrial complex employs millions of people directly and indirectly. Judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, prison guards, construction companies that build prisons, police, probation officers, court clerks, the list goes on and on. Many predominately white rural communities have come to believe that their local economies depend on prisons for jobs.”

“People charged with drug offenses, though, are typically poor people of color. They are routinely charged with felonies and sent to prison.”

People Poor Color Drug Prison Offense Poor People Felony

Author:Michelle Alexander

“We must build a movement for education, not incarceration. A movement for jobs, not jails. A movement that will end all forms of discrimination against people released from prison - discrimination that denies them basic human rights to work, shelter and food.”

People Humans Ends Jobs Form Rights Movement Prison Human Rights Deny Discrimination Jail Shelter Incarceration Basic Human Rights

Author:Michelle Alexander

“My own view - and I'm very open to hearing other perspectives - is that this movement-building needs to begin at home, in local communities. It isn't about trying to launch a brand new national party overnight. It's about people in communities coming together across lines of difference, bringing with them their movements, their families, and coming together and saying, "How can we together build a movement of movements here at home? What would that look like? What do we want to do right here in our communities?"”

People Trying Home Together Community Party Perspective

Author:Michelle Alexander

“I think that we need to begin talking about what does it mean to create these safe spaces in our communities, to begin welcoming one another into our homes and into our communities when they're returning home from prison, people who are on the streets. We need to begin doing the work in our own communities of creating the kind of democracy that we would like to see on a larger scale.”

People Thinking Kind Mean Home Community Democracy Prison Welcome Returning Home

Author:Michelle Alexander

“I think it's critically important that the people who have been most harmed by mass incarceration, by mass deportation, by neoliberalism, by all of it, not only have a voice in crafting these platforms but emerge and are supported as real leaders in these movements.”

People Thinking Important Real Leader Incarceration

Author:Michelle Alexander

“We're living in a time when so many of the civil rights and social justice organizations are run by lawyers and policy people who are often very disconnected from the communities they claim to represent.”

People Running Community Justice Policy Social Justice Lawyer Civil Rights

Author:Michelle Alexander

“The so-called resistance is very broad and we don't agree on everything, but there's a moment of opportunity when people are paying attention. It's time for us to really get serious about political education and about our own moral education in this moment, and to seize this opportunity to organize and be in deep dialogue with a whole lot of people who never even thought about being politically engaged or active before. There's real hope there and real opportunity.”

People Real Moments Political Opportunity Attention Moral Serious Agree Dialogue Pay Attention Organize

Author:Michelle Alexander

“We can't just assume that this resistance is going to produce the kinds of candidates or the kinds of parties that will truly honor people of all colors, all backgrounds, all ethnicities, from every nation and every faith and every gender, unless we do the work in our own communities of organizing and being in deep dialogue with one another across all forms of difference. It's my hope that we'll seize this opportunity and not let the moment pass.”

People Kind Moments Opportunity Community Party Honor Assuming Gender Dialogue

Author:Michelle Alexander

“The fate of millions of people—indeed the future of the black community itself—may depend on the willingness of those who care about racial justice to re-examine their basic assumptions about the role of the criminal justice system in our society.”

Source: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

“More than 2 million people found themselves behind bars at the turn of the twenty-first century, and millions more were relegated to the margins of mainstream society, banished to a political and social space not unlike Jim Crow, where discrimination in employment, housing, and access to education was perfectly legal, and where they could be denied the right to vote.”

Source: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

“Arguably the most important parallel between mass incarceration and Jim Crow is that both have served to define the meaning and significance of race in America. Indeed, a primary function of any racial caste system is to define the meaning of race in its time. Slavery defined what it meant to be black (a slave), and Jim Crow defined what it meant to be black (a second-class citizen). Today mass incarceration defines the meaning of blackness in America: black people, especially black men, are criminals. That is what it means to be black.”

“Nothing has contributed more to the systematic mass incarceration of people of color in the United States than the War on Drugs”

People War States United United States Color Drug Mass Systematic War On Drugs Incarceration Mass Incarceration

Author:Michelle Alexander

About the Author

Born: October 7, 1967
Known for: Professor
Quotes: 175

Related Topics

People Prison Mass Incarceration Incarceration Drug Black Jim Crow Criminals Mass Men States Community War On Drugs War Race Racism Color Law Castes Crime

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of ColorblindnessRelated source material

The New Jim Crow: Young Readers’ Edition: Mass Incarceration in the Age of ColorblindnessRelated source material

Similar Authors

Peter MoskosBrowse related quotes
Kool A.D.Browse related quotes
Otto Perez MolinaBrowse related quotes
Sam BransonBrowse related quotes
Michael K. WilliamsBrowse related quotes
Angela DavisBrowse related quotes
Fred KorematsuBrowse related quotes
Barry McCaffreyBrowse related quotes
Glenn LouryBrowse related quotes
Bryan StevensonBrowse related quotes