The criticism of President Barack Obama’s allegiance to the African American community still comes spewing out of the mouths of plenty of critics like a free flowing spigot. Polarizing arguments have been made that counter each other regarding how, and if policy that has emerged from the White House (or Congress), has yielded positive effects on low income, black communities in modern times. Many arguments subscribe to “trickle down” legislation that has impacted a select few African Americans. Other arguments point to systemic obstacles that always have, and will continue to plague blacks in America unless serious uprooting, only initiated by serious acknowledgment, occurs. The latter, paints the president as the head of a system that isn’t structured for equality, suggesting no easy “fix”.

Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow” hyperbolically introduces what she calls, a “racial caste system”, mass incarceration. Morphed from the destructive, yet potent structures of Slavery and Jim Crow, Alexander argues that mass incarceration in America is the living, not so distant cousin of the former institutions of control that have helped to unfairly denigrate the black community. From face value, the “concept” of mass incarceration as compared to slavery and Jim Crow, screams false equivalency. However, the manner that Alexander connects undeniable linkages between the 3 racial caste systems, and presents an extensive list of damning examples through bills and laws that have helped support mass incarceration, would influence even the most staunch race-neutralist.

Alexander’s approach at sequentially narrating America’s history of creating and executing government sponsored means of race-based social control is brilliant. It begins with the historical patterns of keeping African Americans marginalized, beginning from slavery. As a response to the Baker rebellion, vindictive methods of exploiting the vulnerabilities of lower class whites were manipulated, leveraging their fears of never being the last, most inferior, group in America. Using this illusionary fear, white settlers were allowed access to land, were allowed to “police” slaves, effectively separating the poor by race. “Racial bribing” continued through the jim crow era, and now to mass incarceration of today.

Alexander provides extensive detail and evidence that illustrate the synchrony of the US judicial system, law enforcement, and societal barriers for ex-felons. From the onset of the “War on Drugs”, that Ronald Reagan championed in 1981, the focus on “get tough” policies as opposed to actual crime was overlooked by many, at the time. Groomed by Richard Nixon’s “law and order” focused political rhetoric, Reagan gave life to appealing to white Americans, and rebranding a race-neutral, yet race-focused “War on Drugs”. As FBI, DOD, and DEA’s focuses shifted to drug policy, and economic challenges increased due to manufacturing and industrialization going global, urban citizens began to look to drugs for an outlet. This validated Reagan’s “War”, increasing crime concern, while effectively ignoring actual crime rates. Alexander attributes “race neutral” rhetoric as a main driver for the success of the war on drugs, despite the fact that 90% of those admitted to prison for drug offenses in many states were Black and Latino. The “Anti Drug Abuse Act of 1986”, which imposed mandatory minimum sentences, including more severe punishment for crack — associated with blacks; the “Anti Drug Abuse Act of 1988” which expanded the use of the death penalty, allowed the denial of public housing for tenants accused of drug related activity, implemented the infamous “3 strikes” ; introduced welfare reform, or welfare restriction rather , for those convicted of a felony drug offense. There is no shortage of policy-specific exhibits to detail a very pointed system of racial control.

You see, what’s special about Alexander’s narration, is the manner in which she illustrates vividly and thoroughly, how mass incarceration operates so systemically, so powerfully, so masterfully. From the initial stage of “the arrest”, driven by quotas and rewards for utilizing pretext stops and consent searches (giving ultimate discretion to officers, challenging the 4th Amendment), to the federal financial grants that fund local militarized police operations (Byrne grant). From the constant mental state of defense, that “victims” feel once they are taken in and processed, to the limited legal representation that they have at their disposal, including the empowered district attorney eager to present a plea deal, no matter if the “victim” is guilty or not. From the 2nd class citizenship that these “victims” are born into upon release from prison, based on their limited access to housing, education, voting, jury rights, and other basic so-called American rights. Alexander exposes how this system persists past prison release and cripples lives forever, leaving the “victims” to chase true freedom much longer.

Some may argue that these ills, are race neutral and can victimize anyone, but the data suggests otherwise. These structural hurdles disproportionately affect black men, while actual drug use is higher when compared to white counterparts. Alexander draws a beautiful parallel to this new system, mass incarceration, this new jim crow. Like Jim crow, mass incarceration marginalizes a large segment of the black community, and then legally discriminates against them. Followed by political disenfranchisement and racial segregation, Alexander, in a very regression-like style of mapping, shows how the same marginalizations of jim crow, haunt many black Americans today. She points out the differences between slavery, jim crow and mass incarceration, as well.

What an exhaustive, yet telling, system to keep blacks in second class citizenship. Demilitarizing police departments, federalizing arrest reporting, ending financial rewarding for arrests, ending mandatory minimums, erasing disparity in drug sentencing, expanding public defender working conditions, increased investment in drug rehabilitation as opposed to drug punishment, making re entry fair; all are meaningful measures that provide equal footing for convicted Americans

Alexander suggests that the challenge with the suggested solutions is that this system cannot be overcome with measurable legislative reforms that we hope will “trickle down” into our communities. It will take more. A different, almost revolutionized, public perception, of course coupled with the aforementioned legislative improvements. You see, we are in a time where we have convinced ourselves that our laws are without racial implication. Some may argue that is more dangerous than slavery and Jim Crow, when we knew where our laws stood and the rhetoric was racially explicit.

Alexander brilliantly parallels the short lived poor people’s movement of MLK, by presenting the following quote :

“We have to make the case in the court of public opinion”. He believed it’s what was necessary to mobilize thousands to make their case in the court of public consensus. Asserting that HOW the general public thinks about drug crime is the clear sign that a strong system is in place.

As Alexander puts it “Isolated victories can be won, but until we shift public consciousness, the system as a whole remains intact.”