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Quote by Michelle Alexander

“Today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all the ways that it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans. Once you're labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination - employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial of educational opportunity, denial of food stamps and other public benefits, and exclusion from jury service - are suddenly legal.”

Quote by Michelle Alexander

Author

Michelle Alexander

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. more

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“As a criminal you have scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a black man living in Alabama at the height of Jim Crow. We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.”

Men America Black Rights Criminals Height Crow Alabama Castes Jim Crow

Author:Michelle Alexander

“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

“For children, the era of mass incarceration has meant a tremendous amount of family separation, broken homes, poverty, and a far, far greater level of hopelessness as they see so many of their loved ones cycling in and out of prison. Children who have incarcerated parents are far more likely themselves to be incarcerated.”

Children Home Parent Levels Poverty Greater Broken Amount Mass Prison Separation Eras Loved Ones Hopelessness Cycling Incarceration Mass Incarceration Broken Homes

Author:Michelle Alexander

“When young black men reach a certain age - whether or not there is incarceration in their families - they themselves are the target of police stops, interrogations, frisks, often for no reason other than their race. And, of course, this level of harassment sends a message to them, often at an early age: No matter who you are or what you do, you're going to find yourself behind bars one way or the other. This reinforces the sense that prison is part of their destiny, rather than a choice one makes.”

“There can be many bars, wires that keep a person trapped. All of them don't have to have been created for the purpose of harming or caging the bird, but they still serve that function.”

Persons Has Beens Stills Purpose Bird Function Bars Trapped Wire

Author:Michelle Alexander

“Certainly youth of color, particularly those in ghetto communities, find themselves born into the cage. They are born into a community in which the rules, laws, policies, structures of their lives virtually guarantee that they will remain trapped for life. It begins at a very early age when their parents themselves are either behind bars or locked in a permanent second-class status and cannot afford them the opportunities they otherwise could.”

Age Law Opportunity Parent Born Community Behinds Class Policy Youth Color Structure Bars Permanent Guarantees Locked Trapped Cages Ghetto Guarantees That Class Status

Author:Michelle Alexander

“For many, whether they go to prison or not is far less about the choices they make and far more about what kind of cage they're born into.”

Kind Choices Born Prison Cages

Author:Michelle Alexander

“Middle-class white children, children of privilege, are afforded the opportunity to make a lot of mistakes and still go on to college, still dream big dreams. But for kids who are born in the ghetto in the era of mass incarceration, the system is designed in such a way that it traps them, often for life.”

Way Children Stills Dream Bigs Kids Opportunity Born White Mistake Class Middle College Goes On Mass Privilege Eras Middle Class Traps Ghetto Incarceration Mass Incarceration

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