Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness (Book Review Sample)

Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness
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This book that provoked the minds of very many Americans when it was released in October 2011.The author Michele Alexander, who is a former director of The Racial Justice Project of The American Civil Liberties, And Unions (ACLU) In Northern California, challenges the civil rights activists to place the issue of mass incarceration at the forefront while pushing for racial justice in America. Alexander asserts that racial discrimination in America is still alive and kicking. She bases her argument on the fact that more than half of young black men in all large American cities are currently either in jail or their names are in criminal records. She refuses to agree with many people who associate this with poverty and bad choices. Besides; she offers statistics to support her assertion where the United States of America has the highest rate of incarceration in the whole world (Alexander, 2011).
According to her statistics, seven hundred and fifty people are in prison for every one hundred thousand adults and children. The statistics further revealed that black men had been convicted and imprisoned on drug charges at rates 20 to 50 times greater than those of white men contrary to the many surveys conducted that suggest that white youth is more likely to engage in drug crimes than the blacks. This incredible gap of African America being convicted and charged with drug crimes in contrast of what surveys shows is a clear sign that the war on drugs has other motives than the ones a common man might think. Alexander points out that, the United States have put in place laws, policies, customs, and institutions that ensure the African Americans are under controlled (Alexander, 2011).
Alexander points out that, just like the way African American control in the past through slavery and the Jim Crow laws, mass incarceration is not different. The only difference is that, now it is done in a smart way that people might not realize. However, once you become a convicted felon the old forms of discrimination in employment, housing, denial of education opportunity, and other public benefits become legal. She further describes how the mass incarceration has brought about divisions in the black community. She asserts that mass incarceration is designed to warehouse a population that the government of United States thinks does more harm than good to the new global economy (Alexander, 2011).
Strengths of the argument
Alexander can prove through statistics that most of the people in prison are the African American. She also to point out that the drug wars got pointed towards crack because its primary users were African American(Alexander, 2011). Another strength that the book reveals is when Alexander brings up facts about how frequently African Americans and minorities are searched when they are stopped for traffic inspections. She gives an example of the video footage by a reporter in Volusia County, Florida; the 148 hours of video footage documented more than 1,000 highway stops conducted by state troopers (Alexander, 2011). Only five percent of the drivers stopped on the road were whites the rest were the minority.
The high number of the people stopped is a clear indication of how racism is rampant in the United States. Moreover, even after the video footage showing how the police were racially discriminating the blacks, the Supreme Court argument was biased. The court argued that unless the plaintiff accepts that he/she racially abused the defendant then the court can’t rule against the plaintiff. The ruling therefore never caught the traffic police with any crime(Alexander, 2011).
The surveys about drug crimes conducted in the United States suggested that the whites engaged in drugs crimes in large numbers than the African Americans. However the fact that most of the people convicted and charged with crimes associated with drugs are blacks a clear indication that her assertions are right.
Weaknesses of the argument
Alexander argument about the conviction of black people is baseless. This is because she has not proven in any way that those who were charged and convicted were innocent. The fact that the incarnated people are not allowed to vote doesn’t at all show any discrimination since that already happens in very many countries worldwide. Moreover, even the white in the jails are not allowed to vote. Her argument that the government policies punish crack cocaine that is associated with blacks more harshly than the powdered cocaine associated with the whites holds no water. The argument makes me believe that most of the blacks in prison were caught using the drug (Alexander, 2011).
Other themes
Poverty and unemployment: most of the African American’s are poor not by choice, but as a result of the mass incarceration. Most of the young men and women in jail when they get out of prison are unable to secure a job because they are felons. This has made the gap between the poor blacks and the rich whites to widen every day.
Poor education: most of the African American families’ children don’t get education up to the higher levels as a result of poverty brought about by mass incarceration. With poor education they don't get good jobs, they end up being poor like their parents thus the gap between the rich and the poor continues to become bigger.
The way forward
The country has got two options. To either chose to build a cohesive community or uphold the status quo. For the last 40 years, the country has implemented policies that have promoted diversity between the African American and the whites. The policies have led to increasing in racial discrimination. Although the right for African-American people to vote was enforce in nineteen sixty-five, mass incarceration policies have taken the right away from in a well-planned way. There are very many young black men are in jail, and they never vote (Robynn, 2015).
The first step the government and the American citizens should take is to accept that racism exists in America. The government should change the policies that have promoted disproportionate mass incarceration in the past. Had these policies being enforced equally in the past these pro...