Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Michelle Alexander

Quote by Michelle Alexander

“A new race-neutral language was developed for appealing to old racist sentiments, a language accompanied by a political movement that succeeded in putting the vast majority of backs back in their place. Proponents of racial hierarchy found they could install a new racial caste system without violating the law or the new limits of acceptable political discourse, by demanding 'law and order' rather than 'segregation forever'.”

Quote by Michelle Alexander

Create image

Author

Michelle Alexander
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

You May Also Like

“Today there are more African-Americans under correctional control, in prison or jail, on probation or parole, than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began. There are millions of African-Americans now cycling in and out of prisons and jails or under correctional control or saddled with criminal records. In major American cities today, more than half of working-age African-American men either are under correctional control or are branded felons, and are thus subject to legalized discrimination for the rest of their lives.”

MenWarAgeTodayCitiesHalfMillionsSubjectsMajorsPrisonDecadesDiscriminationAfrican AmericanCivil WarJailCyclingParoleBrandedAmerican CitiesFelonsProbation
Author:Michelle Alexander
Create image

“No other country in the world imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities. The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid”

WorldCountryStatesBlackUnitedUnited StatesSouthPopulationHeightMinoritiesSouth AfricaOther CountriesPercentagesApartheidJim Crow
Book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Create image

“The fact that more than half of the young black men in any large American city are currently under the control of the criminal justice system (or saddled with criminal records) is not - as many argue - just a symptom of poverty or poor choices, but rather evidence of a new racial caste system at work.”

MenFactsYoungChoicesBlackJusticePoorCitiesHalfPovertyRecordsEvidenceCriminalsArguingSymptomsJustice SystemCriminal JusticeCastesCriminal Justice SystemAmerican CitiesCaste SystemPoor Choices
Author:Michelle Alexander
Create image

“Since the nation's founding, African Americans repeatedly have been controlled through institutions such as slavery and Jim Crow, which appear to die, but then are reborn in new form, tailored to the needs and constraints of the time.”

NeedsHas BeensFormDiesNationsInstitutionsSlaveryAfrican AmericanControlledFoundingConstraintsCrowRebornJim CrowTailored
Book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Create image

“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. As a criminal, you have scarcely more rights, and largely 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.”

MenAmericaFormOpportunityBlackRightsBenefitsVoteEducationalCriminalsDiscriminationEmploymentDenialHeightStampsHousingJuryCrowExclusionRight To VoteAlabamaCastesJim CrowFood StampsMass IncarcerationFelonsEmployment Discrimination
Author:Michelle Alexander
Create image