Food for thought. Students were to prepare by reading the chapter entitled: "The New Jim Crow." Read an article on Jim Crow before class, bring the reference electronically to class with notations. Site it in the one of the paragraphs or as a part of a bibliography.
In 3 paragraphs: Define "Jim Crow" per Michelle Alexander. Look at one other source to check or verify Alexander's claim that the prison system is a reincarnation of this old system adopted by our judicial system to exclude entire populations of American people from its democracy and due process under the law.
Who or what is he? Use a citation in each paragraph: 1 free paraphrase, 1 shorter citation, 1 block quote
Students have 20-25 minutes to write this short essay.
In 3 paragraphs: Define "Jim Crow" per Michelle Alexander. Look at one other source to check or verify Alexander's claim that the prison system is a reincarnation of this old system adopted by our judicial system to exclude entire populations of American people from its democracy and due process under the law.
Who or what is he? Use a citation in each paragraph: 1 free paraphrase, 1 shorter citation, 1 block quote
Students have 20-25 minutes to write this short essay.
Jim Crow was the name of a minstrel show character and also the name of a series of laws designed to legalize racist practices of state and local government after the abolition of slavery in the United States. This series of laws included, but was not limited to, segregation of schools, restaurants and even water fountains. Jim Crow was designed to ostracize the newly freed black population in this country in order to prevent a mixing of races on any level.
ReplyDeleteAs time passed, the Jim Crow laws of old were found to be unconstitutional through the efforts of the civil rights movement. It was around this time that the New Jim Crow was born under the guise of the war on drugs. The war on drugs was launched at a time when drugs in the community were on the low priority list of most citizens. Most were more concerned with homicide and other heinous crimes. In all of Michelle Alexander's examples as to how the war on drugs has become a tool for mass incarceration she cites the startling numbers of people of color that have been arrested in the so-called war. The New Jim Crow is defined as a well hidden means of ostracizing the black male population and legalizing racism in a society that seems to be upwardly mobile towards racial harmony.
The confusion of racial harmony in our society is that people confuse color blindness with equal treatment. In a recent conversation with classmates, I pointed out how skewed the demographics are in our prison system. For instance, if there are only 12% of black people in the US (free) population, where are there greater than 60% of black people occupying the prison population? The New Jim Crow is in full effect.
Vincent Corral Jr
ReplyDeleteProcessor Sabir
English 5
15 March 2012
Cyber Assignment
The New Jim Crow is the speculation by author Michelle Alexander making a case that a new caste system has been put in place to control and incarcerate minorities, more specifically African Americans. She has made her case through evidence from history and statistics that the act of slavery and the old Jim Crow is no different than what is being used in today's justice system. She has shown evidence that the war on drugs was the excuse used to target black americans that would keep them stuck in the lower middle class.
In an article written by Jennifer Schuessler, she points out in Alexander's work that her arguments relate directly from the beginning of Richard Nixon and Ronald Regan's was on drugs. With the crackdowns of drug user's and distributers, they were able to target black men to exploit them of their crimes. Schuessler also points out in the article,"...nearly one-third fo black men are likely to spend time in prison at some point, only to find themselves falling into permanent second-class citizenship after they get out" (Schuessler).
The definition of Jim Crow over all is the reincarnation of the last caste systems used to control the black population. In regards to this, the fact that Alexander was able to point out these issues is that racism still exists today. The way this new caste system was delivered was to keep the mass population unaware of such a caste system existing as a racist approach and to protect the interest of the authoratative powers to control and incarcerate minorities and African Americans.
Work Cited
Schuessler, Jennifer. "Drug Policy as Race Policy: Best Seller Galvanizes the Debate." NYTimes.com 6 March 2012. Web. 15 March 2012
Ricardo Arvizu
ReplyDeleteEnglish 5
Professor Sabir
3/15/12
English 5
Michelle Alexander not only defines the old Jim crow but she also explains how the New Jim Crow is in parallel with the old Jim Crow. She gives the reader a very straight forward answer to the difference between the old and the new Jim Crow "Jim Crow was explicitly race based, where as mass incarceration is not." What Alexander means by this is that the old Jim crow was very straightforward and racist whereas the new Jim Crow or mass incarceration makes people believe that criminals should be placed in prison and the rights of these peiople should be taken away because they are criminals.
The New Jim Crow takes away prisoners rights when they are in prison and even if they get out of prison their rights are taken away. A black person during the Old Jim Crow era could not vote and a prisoner in the New Jim Crow era cannot vote just because they are called criminals. It may be a new era in time where people believe that race based segregation is completely abolished but criminal based segregation is not.
Jim Crow according to the article "What was Jim Crow" was a racial caste system that was designed to treat people of either black or brown decent as second class citizens. It made segregation legal. The article explained how white ministers believed that they quote "were the chosen ones" and this was enough evidence for them to segregate blacks from whites. Alexander also explained how segregation was also a tool to prevent poor whites from working with poor blacks to rebel against the white elite.
Joseph Paez
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
15 March 2012
Jim Crow Essay
Jim Crow is described as segregation laws, rules, and customs, which arose after reconstruction ended in 1877. It progressed until the mid 1960’s. It began with a struggling actor Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy” Rice. He wrote a song called Jim Crow and played a stereotypical black character. “Come listen all you galls and boys, I’m going to sing a little song, My name is Jim Crow, Weel about and turn about and do jis so, Eb’ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow.” Rice was the first white man to wear black face makeup. As his skits grew in success, the term Jim Crow became popular and was used as a racial term.
Jim Crow grew offensive to terms such as coon or darkie. By the 19th century it became a set of customs and laws to segregate blacks from whites. Jim Crow was never a real person and yet it affected the lives of millions of people. “It was named after a minstrel song that stereotyped African-Americans. Jim Crow came to personify the system of government-sanctioned racial oppression and segregation in the United States.” It was difficult for African-Americans to fit in because they were looked at differently. They were denied the right to vote or be any part of American society. Many of the African-Americans were afraid to go against whites because of the consequences they might face. For example, lynching, violently beaten, or threatened.”
After the American Civil War most states in the South passed anti-African American legislation. This became to be Jim Crow laws, eventually, it discriminated against African Americans. It prevented African Americans to enter public schools, restaurants, hotels, theaters, cinemas, and public baths. In addition, marriages between whites and African-Americans were prohibited, as were trains or any public transportation.
“Jim Crow laws were tested in 1896 by Homer Plessey when convicted in Louisiana for riding in a white only railway car. Plessey took his case to the Supreme Court but the justices voted in favour of the Louisiana Court. William B. Brown established the legality of segregation as long as facilities were kept "separate but equal". Only one of the justices, John Harlan, disagreed with this decision.”
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/who.htm
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/
William Everett
DeleteProfessor Sabir
3/15/12
English 5
Jim Crow Essay
Jim Crow laws where laws in America that worked as a caste system in which blacks were targeted. It was used primarily in Southern states and the states which bordered them. For others looking in it seemed like extreme anti-black laws, however people looking in wouldn’t have understood that these laws changed the way black Americans lived. If laws like these were to be propositioned in present day they would be immediately thrown out, however back then many white people of power were convinced the black people were inferior intellectually and physically. What this did was successfully dehumanize them making these laws not seem as cruel. The Jim Crow laws essentially served as a legal form of racism. Many of the laws not only had segregation in mind but also had underlying meanings. For example “A Black male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a White male” they were unable to shake hands because it applied that both men would have been equals which of course was the whole point of the laws keeping blacks from becoming equals. A fear which the white people had at that time was, that the black men were stealing all the white women so in theme with that they created a law in which “Blacks were not allowed to show public affection toward one another in public, especially kissing, because it offended Whites.” If the fear of breaking the law wasn’t enough to deter this crime the punishment often was as most black men caught of ‘raping’ the white women were often put to death. Michelle Alexander believes that “mass incarceration is the common day form of the Jim Crow laws” They both share the same trait of legalized discrimination. She believes that if branded felons by the time they reach the age if twenty-one they will be subjected to legal discrimination for the rest of their adult lives. Felons are discriminated against in the same ways in which blacks were treated in the time of Jim Crow Laws, hence why Alexander names her book The New Jim Crow. Mass incarcenation of criminals today only succeeds because the term Felon. By classifying someone as a felon you are dehumanizing them just like the social Darwinists of the past did with blacks, this is why legislation that pounds criminals are so serve.
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/who.htm
Minh (Mark) Vu
DeleteProfessor Sabir
3/15/12
English 5
Cyber Assignment-Jim Crow Definition
In the article “From Terror to Triumph”, Dr. Ronald Davis explained the origin of the term “Jim Crow”. The term Jim Crow originated from a song performed by Daddy Rice. Daddy Rice was a white minstrel show entertainer in the 1830s that covered his face with charcoal to imitate a black man. His dance and song routines were to exaggerate the actions of a black person. Jim Crow became a stereotypical image of black’s inferiority and soon became the identification of racist laws and actions that stripped African Americans of their civil rights. The term Jim Crow highlight blacks as inferior to whites.
After the Civil War, the tensions between Blacks and White intensified in the South as slavery was ended. The South began to segregate African American completely out of their churches and schools. “At the same time, most southern states tried to limit the economic and physical freedom of the formerly enslaved by adopting laws known as “Black Codes”. The Black Codes are legal forms of the imposed Jim Crow on the African American.
According to Michelle Alexander, the author of “The New Jims Crow”, she pointed out the unjust system that target and incarcerate minorities, especially African Americans. She pointed out the commonality between new judicial system and the old “Jim Crow” laws and action. She shows evidences of how the new popular culture used the war on drugs to target African Americans and prevent the development of African American, both morally and financially. Her main point is that the old Jim Crow system has evolved to continues and oppress and demoralize African Americans.
Work Sited
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/overview.htm
Shayne Keator
DeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
17 March 2012
I like how much history you put into your essay.
Daniela Debergue
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
15 March 2012
“New Jim Crow” Definition Essay
Jim Crow laws were originally instated primarily in Southern states of the U.S. and were intended to limit the rights of black people after the era of Reconstruction after the Civil War. Government officials and white supremacists in the South saw Reconstruction as an uprising of the blacks, and they intended to stop this uprising. Jim Crow laws promoted segregation and placed ridiculous restrictions on blacks. For instance, under Jim Crow Laws, a black man was not allowed to light a white woman’s cigarette, show affection for his lover in public, or eat in the presence of white people (Pilgrim).
During this time in the South, the Ku Klux Klan was having a huge resurgence. These extreme white supremacists were regrouping in an effort to stop Reconstruction, as they viewed the movement as a threat to white power. They used terrorist tactics in order to scare African Americans into giving up their efforts for racial equality and civil rights. The organization used lynchings, bombings, and mob violence, along with other forms of violence, to halt the era of Reconstruction and begin an era of “Redemption” (Alexander, 31).
Although the Jim Crow laws of the Civil Rights era are no longer enforced, the same sort of oppression is extremely evident in our society today. Michelle Alexander refers to this oppression as the “New Jim Crow.” This is an era in which the government no longer uses the term “black” to refer to a secondary citizen. We now use the term “criminal.” Former President Reagan’s War on Drugs, called to order in the 1980s, gives law enforcement the right to use minor traffic violations and other minor infractions to coerce citizens into consenting to a search of their private property for drugs. Even if a person objects to such a search, law enforcement officers can arrest the person purely on suspicion. Many of these searches have landed people in jail for holding small amounts of drugs, and since the War on Drugs condones harsher punishment for drug possession, these searches are condemning a huge amount of people to the prison system. Most of these people are people of color. Once labeled “criminals” by society, these people’s rights are taken away, such as the right to vote. Educational and occupational rights are also severely limited once they are out of prison.
Works Cited
Pilgrim, David. “What Was Jim Crow?” Ferris.edu. Ferris State University. Sept. 2008. Web. n.d.
Put spaces between your paragraphs. Set off your block quotes so they are easier to see.
ReplyDeleteMinh (Mark) Vu
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
3/15/12
English 5
Cyber Assignment-Jim Crow Definition
In the article “From Terror to Triumph”, Dr. Ronald Davis explained the origin of the term “Jim Crow”. The term Jim Crow originated from a song performed by Daddy Rice. Daddy Rice was a white minstrel show entertainer in the 1830s that covered his face with charcoal to imitate a black man. His dance and song routines were to exaggerate the actions of a black person. Jim Crow became a stereotypical image of black’s inferiority and soon became the identification of racist laws and actions that stripped African Americans of their civil rights. The term Jim Crow highlight blacks as inferior to whites.
After the Civil War, the tensions between Blacks and White intensified in the South as slavery was ended. The South began to segregate African American completely out of their churches and schools. “At the same time, most southern states tried to limit the economic and physical freedom of the formerly enslaved by adopting laws known as “Black Codes”. The Black Codes are legal forms of the imposed Jim Crow on the African American.
According to Michelle Alexander, the author of “The New Jims Crow”, she pointed out the unjust system that target and incarcerate minorities, especially African Americans. She pointed out the commonality between new judicial system and the old “Jim Crow” laws and action. She shows evidences of how the new popular culture used the war on drugs to target African Americans and prevent the development of African American, both morally and financially. Her main point is that the old Jim Crow system has evolved to continues and oppress and demoralize African Americans.
Work Sited
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/overview.htm
Amber Robbins
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
March 15, 2011
Cyber Assignment Definition Essay Jim Crow
The history of the “Jim Crow” era was that of a racial caste system against black citizens that moved beyond simple laws, it was a guideline for everyday life. For African Americans, in some cases Jim Crow was a situation of life or death. “The Jim Crow laws and system of etiquette were under-girded by violence, real and threatened.”If a black man was accused of raping a white woman, such as in the case of the Scottsboro Boys, if not beaten in the streets, he would be faced with an all-white jury and would face maximum penalty. Alexander is now equating this same type of judicial injustice with the drug accusations being thrown onto black communities and if a black man versus a white man is put on trial for drugs, Alexander makes the implication that the jury would be more stacked against the black man. “In some states, black men have been admitted to prison on drug charges at rates twenty to fifty times greater than those of white men” offers Alexander.
Jim Crow, according to Alexander is that same oppressive racial caste system, just a cloaked version of the first, the same oppression of a group of people, artfully put under the guise of cleaning up crime on the streets. According to Alexander, there was no real correlation between the amplified fight against drug crime, and drug crime rates going on the rise. The only logical explanation to Alexander is that this was being used to persecute African Americans. The Georgia Supreme Court let go the fact that 98.4 percent of the defendants given life sentences for repeat drug offenses were black. From the perspective of The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, that is Jim Crow.
No matter what time or context the world is in, Jim Crow has a negative connotation, whether oppression or depression of social standing. Jim Crow is injustice, it is fear and isolation. Jim Crow is persecution, jail time, perhaps life sentence. Jim Crow is the puppeteer to blind justice.
Works Cited:
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New, 2010. Print.
"What Was Jim Crow?" Ferris State University: Michigan College Campuses in Big Rapids MI, Grand Rapids MI, Off Campus Locations Across Michigan. Web. 15 Mar. 2012. .
Monsoon Pandey
DeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
15 March 2012
Response to Amber Robbins
You are right, from the perspective of the New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, that is Jim Crow. Jim Crow, The New Jim Crow, and even slavery itself are the same thing, just in different forms. The only way to differentiate those three is by the scale of obviousness to ambiguousness where slavery is very obvious and direct and the new jim crow is more ambiguous and sly.
Monsoon Pandey
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
15 March 2012
Jim Crow Definition Essay
Throughout the book “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarnation in the Age of Colorblindness” Michelle Alexander points out how racism and discrimination towards the minority never ends in our nation. She specially denotes that segregation and prejudice towards African American has not ceased even after 150 years since the end of slavery and 50 years since the Civil Rights movement. As the era progresses, and as the injustice and segregation becomes more transparent and obvious, the government attempts to set new “affirmative action” but the segregation still does not go anywhere, but rather takes a new ambiguous form.
At this era, the segregation and the ways of “The New Jim Crow” is more difficult to discern for the general public because they are mostly hidden slyly within the laws or exists as stereotypes within the society. The War on Drugs is one of the most furtive forms of segregation that African Americans are victims of. Judge Clyde Cahill, an African American judge of the Federal District of Missouri, declared that there is a hundred-to-one ratio racially discrimination in violation of the Fourteen Amendment, although “no admissions of racial bias or racist intent could be found in the record”. Cahill acknowledged that many people may not believe they are motivated by discriminatory attitudes but argued that we all have internalized fear of young black men, a fear reinforced by the media.
As Alexander states, it is time to end affirmative action and let all Americans compete on equal footing. Segregation and racism has been going on for years and within all kind of races, not just black. Kids are being born in a society where their future and personality has already been outlined by the society, and where injustice is still happening because the minority is expected to accept the mediocrity. Like Michelle Alexandra pointed out in her novel, “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.”
Work Cited
Chettiar, Inimai. "Why Mass Incarceration is really the New Jim Crow" Power&Politics. 24 Feb., 2012. Web. 15 March, 2012
Amber Robbins
DeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
March 15, 2012
Response to Monsoon Pandey
I agree with what you are saying about how, through Alexander's perspective, the same Jim Crow control still exists, only in a guise and hidden within other forms today such as the drug war. Also, i liked the use of the quote about how people, without even realizing it, act out of racial biased because of stereotypes and media.
Shayne Keator
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
15 March 2012
The New Jim Crow- Cyber Assignment
Jim Crow was a system that was used to oppress African Americans after slavery, between the years of 1876 and 1964. The name Jim Crow was derived from a song and by a minstrel performer. Jim Crow laws enforced the segregation of African Americans by disallowing them from sharing public spaces with White Americans. According to Michelle Alexander, Jim Crow was “a system that put black people nearly back where they began, in a subordinate racial caste” (Alexander 20). African Americans were not allowed to go the same restaurants as whites or eat with whites, shake hands with whites, show public affection with one another (other blacks), use the same restrooms and water fountains with whites, and many other restrictions (Ferris State University). Thousands of African Americans were arrested for petty reasons, such as ‘insulting gestures,’ and often sent to forced labor camps to pay off their fines (Alexander 31). Jim Crow in effect undermined any freedom that the emancipation proclamation created for African Americans.
Michelle Alexander claims that America has developed a new, less recognized version of Jim Crow. Alexander provides substantial evidence that mass incarceration of black and brown skinned criminals is the “New Jim Crow.” Alexander points out that this mass incarceration has been a direct result of the War on Drugs initiated buRonald Reagan in the early 80’s. Alexander describes the parallels between the original Jim Crow and the New Jim Crow:
In my experience, people who have been incarcerated rarely have difficulty identifying the parallels between thse systems of control. Once they are released, they are often denied the right to vote, excluded from juries, and relegated to a racially segregated and subordinated existence. Through a web of laws, regulations and informal rules, all of which are powerfully reinforced by social stigma, they are confined to the margins of mainstream society and denied access to the mainstream economy. They are legally denied the ability to obtain employment, housing, and public benefits—much as African Americans were once forced into a segregated, second-class citizenship in the Jim Crow era (Alexander 4).
Among the several articles reviewing Alexander’s book the The New
Jim Crow, the general consensus is that her information and conlusions are accurate However, Bill Frezza, contributor for Forbes, points out one minor “caveat.” Frezz ponders, “If you lived in a police state with half your friends in jail, knowing you might be pulled over on a pretext at any moment, why in the world would you drive around with marijuana in your car?” (Frezza). Aside from this small concession, Frezza fully supports Alexander’s arguments, and admits that through her book the foundation of his belief system has been shifted.
Works Cited
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New Press, 2010. Print
"What Was Jim Crow?" Ferris State University: Michigan College Campuses in Big Rapids MI, Grand Rapids MI, Off Campus Locations Across Michigan. Ferris State University. Web. 16 Mar. 2012. .
Frezza, Bill. "Is Drug War Driven Mass Incarceration the New Jim Crow?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 28 Feb. 2012. Web. 16 Mar. 2012. .
10822617
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
March 15, 2012
Racism has been a problem in the United Sates of America since the nation’s creation. Initially there was slavery followed by many other forms of racism that were disguised as to not be perceived as prejudice. Jim Crow laws were firm anti-black laws that made blacks second class citizens. Michelle Alexander defines the new Jim Crow as a new caste system set in place by our nation’s judicial system. Racism comes in many forms; these are both a new and old form of such prejudice.
Jim Crow laws were forms of legislation that were anti-black thus forcing blacks to become second class citizens; Michelle Alexander is quoted in an interview with NPR as stating that "our criminal justice system, though it appears on the surface to be color blind, is actually working to effectively recreate a caste-like system in America." During the time of Jim Crow laws, whites attempted to manipulate blacks into believing that blacks had won their civil rights when the North won the Civil War and slavery, on paper, was abolished. However, elite whites cloaked the ever present racism that was still present with the phrase, "separate but equal." Similarly, says Alexander, present day elite whites (politicians) are cloaking the modern day racial caste system with the phrase, "The War on Drugs" and the "get-tough movement." She claims that black youth are placed at a disadvantage very early on in their lives via "underfunded schools" and growing up in "poor communities." In a similar fashion as to how blacks were targeted in social settings (i.e. restaurants, water fountains, etc) prior to the repeal of the Jim Crow laws and the Civil Rights Movement, "poor communities of color" are being targeted by the "War on Drugs" and the "get-tough movement," according to Mrs. Alexander. She cites the fact that crime rates are at historic lows and yet "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."
Michelle Alexander's definition of the New Jim Crow wisely attempts to draw parallels between her definition and Jim Crow laws. While she doesn't adamantly say that the two are identical, she does say that both create a caste system and force blacks to become second class citizens. Her definition holds the American justice system accountable for the creation of such a caste system.
Work Cited
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York, NY: New, 2012. Print.
Palta, Rina. "The Informant." Q&A: Michelle Alexander on “The New Jim Crowâ€. NPR, 20 May 2011. Web. 15 Mar. 2012. .
Pilgrim, Dr. David. "What Was Jim Crow?" Ferris State University: Michigan College Campuses in Big Rapids MI, Grand Rapids MI, Off Campus Locations Across Michigan. Ferris State University, Sept. 2000. Web. 15 Mar. 2012. .
Edwin Peabody
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
18 March 2012
Jim Crow
According to the article, What Was Jim Crow, Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system, which operated in the Southern and Border States, between 1877 and the mid-1960s. Jim Crow was more than a series of rigid anti-Black laws. It was a way of life. Under Jim Crow, African Americans were labeled as second-class citizens to whites. Jim Crow represented the legitimization of anti-Black racism. For example, there were laws prohibiting black from eating in the same place with whites. Black was denied the right to vote. They could not drink from the same water fountain as whites. Whites were superior to Blacks in all ways. In the book. The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander, she points out that although slavery and Jim crow laws are not practiced anymore and were ended by the civil rights movement, she provides evidence that a racial caste system still exist today. The new racial caste system that Alexander describes is the mass incarceration of African Americans through the war on drugs.
Alexander mentions how mass incarceration is a reincarnation of the old system of Jim Crow. She explains how this system excludes an entire population of American people from its democracy and due process under the law. The mass incarceration system puts African American under the same stigma of being second-class citizens just like the old Jim Crow laws did. Alexander explains and provides evidence by showing all the parallels with the old Jim Crow and new Jim Crow, which she describes as mass incarceration. Michelle Alexander claims that the mass incarceration of blacks is a new, less recognized version of Jim Crow. She states that we now live in an era in which the government no longer uses the term “black” to refer to second-class citizens but now uses the term criminal.
“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. Slavery defined what it meant to be black (a slave) and Jim Crow defined what it meant to be a black (second class citizen). Today mass incarceration defines the meaning of blackness in America: black people, especially black men, are criminals. This is what it is meant to be black”(PG 197 Alexander).
Alexander explains how the War on Drugs targets mostly African American and locks them up in prison forcefully, taking them away from there family and community. “Convictions for drug offences are the single most important cause of the explosion in incarceration rates in the united states”(60). Police have been given the right to search anyone for drug just off of suspicion or consent. After being labeled a criminal by society, you can never be accepted by mainstream society anymore. Once released from prison, ex cons are legally denied the ability to obtain employment, housing, and public benefits. They also loose their right to vote. These punishments serve as a way to segregate an entire population from society using the same forms of segregation that was used during the old Jim Crow era. Michelle Alexander's definition of the New Jim Crow draws parallels between her definition and the old Jim Crow laws. Although she doesn't specifically say that the two are identical, she does say that both create a caste system and force blacks to become second-class citizens.
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York, NY: New, 2012. Print.
Aaron Villanueva
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
March 15, 2011
Cyber Assignment: Jim Crow
Since The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander defines the struggles of African-American striving for equality, “Jim Crow” is the definition given for African-Americans who are prisoners in their own mind. In America, everyone is equal. According to the constitution everyone who is an American citizen have rights. The problem is that not everyone is willing to use their rights. According to The New Jim Crow people have the right to say no to the police when African-American people were asked to have a search. On page 64 under the “Just Say No” heading, these procedures violate the fourth amendment when officers search other people’s property without any reason. Because people could not say no and agree with the policemen’s terms, they are prisoners in their own mind.
Although African-Americans are striving for equality, “Jim Crow” also defines racial segregation as never having the proper equality. In a way it also creates African Americans to become prisoners in their own mind. Since there are so many terms that separate different class of ethnics to be below others, it does not support equality in America. According to The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander argues about racial segregation. As Michelle Alexander States:
So as long as whites remained in their own neighborhoods, which they were inclined to do. Racial segregation rendered black experience largely invisible to whites, making it easier for whites to maintain racial stereotypes about black values and culture. It also made it easier to deny or ignore their suffering (pg. 195).
The two different social classes of ethnics having separation do not define the terms of equality. Because of this African-American people are prisoners in their own mind and they are labeled as second class citizens.
Since African-Americans are viewed as second class citizens in American, “Jim Crow” also defines second class people who are struggling to become first class. According to The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander defines “Jim Crow” as what it meant to be black in a second-class citizen in America under the symbolic production of race heading on page 197. Based on the article Jim Crow Policing By Bob Herbert “That is an amazingly specious argument. The fact that a certain percentage of criminals may be black or Hispanic is no reason for the police to harass individuals from those groups when there is no indication whatsoever that they have done anything wrong”. More citizens who were arrested happen to be of an African-American or Hispanic-American descendant. This shows that more of specific ethnics believe they are criminals in their own mind.
Work Cited:
Jim Crow Policing. Bob Herbert. New York Times. New York. Nytimes.com. March 14, 2012.
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York, NY: New, 2012. Print.
Tiffanya Richardson
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
March 15, 2012
English 5
Jim Crow Cyber Assignment
What is Jim Crow?
The article creating Jim Crow written by scholar Ronald Davis, gives a historical account of the origination of the term Jim Crow. Davis explains how the term was birthed from a minstrel performer by the name of Thomas Rice. Rice would dress up in black face and mock black men while performing a song entitled Jump Jim Crow. Davis explains that towards the beginning of the civil war the term Jim Crow had developed into a stereotypical term just like sambo or coon. The word Jim Crow actually began to be defined as a racial slur used by whites to belittle African Americans.
Although there were still forms of segregation in place, the Jim Crow era dates back to the late 1890’s. During this time Jim Crow referred to laws that were put in place in order to legalize segregation, Davis goes on to explain; “What is clear, however, is that by 1900, the term was generally identified with those racist laws and actions that deprived African Americans of their civil rights by defining blacks as inferior to whites, as members of a caste of subordinate people.” In her book The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander links this idea of a racial caste system to the way the legal justice system is ran today. Comparing her definition the Jim Crow and racial caste with Davis shows that Alexander may not be very far off with her claim.
Davis speaks about laws that were enforced that banned interracial marriages as well as forcing African Americans to sit in the back of the bus, as well as made to sit in special seats on trains called the Jim Crow car. I related these segregation laws to the way inmates are treated after returning to society following their sentence. Alexander points out how these inmates are discriminated against when it comes to finding employment, housing, and become outcast forgotten by the community.
Work Cite
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New, 2010. Print.
Davis, Ronald. Creating Jim Crow: An in depth essay. The History of Jim Crow an Educators site made possible by New York life. http://www.jimcrowhistory.org. March 15, 2012. Web.
Ronald Parker
ReplyDeleteMs. Wanda
English 5
15 March 2012
In the book Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander addresses the issues of racial injustice. The Jim Crow laws were a caste system which was state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965 which segregated blacks and white from being together. In the south to keep whites and blacks separated. It was 500 plus years of slavery down south, now in modern America we have slavery just in many other forms. People are used as sex slaves, slaves to a teacher as being a student and criminals are slaves to the law enforcement, no matter what we are slaves to someone in some way.
Despite the important documents created for equality such as the declaration of independence, the constitutional rights, state of the union address and Brown Vs. board people still find ways around it not to follow what was created.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particular describing the place to be searched, and the person or things to be seized.
All the hard work to put in for equality we don’t see justice. All the criminal shows make it no better because they only show one side of the story and they show justice being served when we know that doesn’t happen. We see this in shows such as law and order, NCIS, Judge Judy and Judge Joe Brown. Being a colored man you are automatically labeled. When you’re seen in front of a judge for you it is guilty until proven innocent.
Colored people were known as second class citizens and the Jim Crow era showed the struggle they had to go through. When law enforcement went out on drug trafficking they were going after the black the most, trying to find anything that can get them locked up. “Convictions for drug offenses are the single most important cause of the explosion in incarceration rates in the united states” (60). Once they are put in the system past a few years, without working for a family friend or member they can pretty much say their life is over. Without saying it parallels are shown between the old Jim Crow laws and the new ones. I think instead of finding a way to make help show unity instead of being undivided, I believe it will make the world a much better place instead of peoples living nightmares.
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York, NY: New, 2012. Print.
Ronald Parker
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
March 18, 2012
In response to Edwin Peabody,
I agree with the drug targeting and the labeling that is going on because I myself was sort of in the same position. Because of my past it has hindered me of a lot of opportunities and prevented me to experience some things. I would have to say if it was not for my credibility or people I know I probably would be in a bad position myself. Ok, we do make mistakes and deserve to pay our debt to society but after our debt is paid it seems like we have nothing else to do but struggle, we should be given a second chance to make something of ourselves. So that is why I disagree with some laws also.
Edwin Peabody
ReplyDeleteProfessor sabir
English 5
19 March 2012
: Response to Shayne keator
I agree with what you said about people who have been incarcerated rarely have difficulty identifying the parallels between these systems of control. Once they are released, they are often denied the right to vote, excluded from juries, and relegated to a racially segregated and subordinated existence. Ex cons are labeled as criminals and after they have received this label it never goes away and always gets in the way. I have a friend who has a criminal record and because of this, he constantly experiences discrimination. He always tells me how he is always treated differently than others who don’t have records and how he often feels as though sometimes people look at him a see the devil just because he has a record. He tells me how hard it is to deal with everyday. I feel very sorry for those who go through this struggle and hope that one day it will change.
Liliulachelle Finley
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
16 March 2012
The New v. The Old Jim Crow
In Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow,” she argues that mass incarceration and the prison system is the new Jim Crow. It is the racial caste system that she realizes deeply affects the lives of African Americans each and every day. She mentions in her novel that she gained a desire to look for what the new Jim Crow was once she saw a sign by a bus stop stating, “The Drug War is the New Jim Crow.” If the drug war was the new Jim Crow, according to the sign maker, then what is the old Jim Crow?
Jim Crow laws originated post-civil war all the way to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. They weren’t only actual laws but were also “a way of life.” African Americans were treated as though they were one’s pet dog. They were sent to different places, they had to use different bathrooms, water fountains, and sit in different parts of restaurants. In some cases, they couldn’t even enter the same facility that a White man was permitted to enter. This way of life always left African-Americans as the underdog and the White man was superior to them. This hatred spread throughout the United States, especially the South, like the Black Plague. It was usual that an African American man couldn’t shake hands with a White man because it was seen as disrespectful. It was usual that African Americans were subject to rejection. It was usual that a black man and a white woman seen together was seen as sinful and unbearable. This was the life that everyone knew. African Americans were automatically stereotyped as “niggers” and never given a chance. Yet, the Civil Rights Movement occurred but did things really change?
This question runs through the minds of all those who take interest or ponder about civil rights. It especially took great interest in Alexander once she read the bright sign at the bus stop. Alexander, too, believes that the drug war is a major factor in the mass incarceration of African Americans. In her chapter titled, “Nothing New?” she says:
“...there is nothing particularly new about mass incarceration. It is merely the
continuation of past drug wars and biased law enforcement practices. Racial bias in our criminal justice system is simply an old problem that has gotten worse and the social excommunication of “criminals” has a long history.”
The numbers of African-Americans being convicted of drug crimes has boomed since the 1960s. This is simply helped by their racial profile. They are automatically sent to jail because of the color of their skin. In James Forman, Jr.’s review on Alexander’s novel, he states that, “the odds of a black man of [his] generation (born in the late 1960s) will land in prison...are twice as great as for a black man born in the 1940s.” History continues to repeat itself through the racial caste system as law enforcement preys on those of color. Of course a White man wouldn’t be suspected for drugs but a Black man? Definitely. This is the view one observes now because drugs are being spread throughout many cities, gangs are carriers and who to fit the stereotype better than an African American man in his early-20s.
Michelle Alexander doesn’t stop to hesitate her opinion on what seems to be the new Jim Crow. There is nothing new to the lifestyle except that all races can use the same facilities now. However, African Americans are still interrogated repeatedly for many things that their stereotype only reads. This is still the way of life.
Works Cited:
1. Forman, Jr., James. "Harm's Way: Understanding Race and Punishment." Boston Review. Bostonreview.com, Jan.-Feb. 2011. Web. 15 Mar. 2012.
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2. Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New, 2010. Print.
3. Pilgrim, Dr. David. "What Was Jim Crow?" Ferris State University: Michigan College Campuses in Big Rapids MI, Grand Rapids MI, Off Campus Locations Across Michigan. Ferris State University, Sept. 2000. Web. 15 Mar. 2012. .
Edwin Peabody
ReplyDeleteProfessor sabir
English 5
19 March 2012
: Response to Minh (Mark) Vu
You are absolutely right about what Alexander is attempting to argue. Her main point is that the old Jim Crow system has evolved and continues to oppress and demoralize African Americans. The new Jim Crow, which she describes to be mass incarceration of African Americans and the consequences one faces after receiving the label, as a criminal is nothing different from what African Americans faced during slavery and Jim Crow. The segregation of African Americans continues to happen in today’s society.
Evelyn Rodriguez
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
15 March 2012
Jim Crow Then and Now
Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system that operated primarily in the Southern states between 1870’s and the mid 1960’s. But Michelle Alexander, the author of The New Jim Crow, claims that our society is still under the spell of a New Jim Crow. According to Dr. David Pilgrim, a professor of sociology in Ferris State University, under Jim Crow, “African Americans were relegated to the status of second class citizens. Jim Crow represented the legitimization of anti-Black racism.”
Jim Crow was supposed to separate blacks from whites. The white people wanted nothing to do with the blacks. “The Jim Crow system was undergirded by the following beliefs or rationalizations: Whites were superior to Blacks in all important ways, including but not limited to intelligence, morality, and civilized behavior”
Michelle Alexander addresses the issues of racial injustice. The criminal justice system has been developed to keep racial minorities locked up and to keep them inferior to the white race. Alexander gives examples in her book showing how the system targets African Americans and Latinos. War on drugs has been used to target minorities and continue to oppress and demoralize African Americans.
Ana Cristina Muro
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
16 March 2012
Jim Crow Essay
Michelle Alexander believes that today’s society is the New Jim Crow. In her book she describes that today’s prison is a reincarnation of the Jim Crow. However, what is the Jim Crow? According to Ferris State University, “Under Jim Crow, African Americans were relegated to the status of second class citizens. Jim Crow represented the legitimization of anti-Black racism.” It was believed that Whites were superior to Blacks in all important ways. Whites were superior in intelligence and morality. Michelle Alexander believes that prison is the same way, where Blacks are less than whites.
Michelle Alexander believes that many fathers are absent due to incarcerations. As Obama does his speech he mentions that fathers should be more responsible and there to support their families. However, the media was not able to see that fathers are not their because of lack of commitment, but because they are incarcerated in prison due to the War on Drugs (Alexander, 176). Obama mentions that mainly black men are the ones that are absent in their families. However, society is made that way because white men commit the same crimes that many black men do but white men are let out easier.
In today’s society it most likely to get discriminated once a person has committed a crime, however, black men are more likely to not receive a second chance just like in the Jim Crow era.
More black men are imprisoned today than at any other moment in our nation’s history. More are disenfranchised today than in 1870, the year the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified prohibiting laws that explicitly deny the right to vote on the basis of race. Young black men today may be just as likely to suffer discrimination in employment, housing, public benefits, and jury service as a black man in the Jim Crow era –discrimination that is perfectly legal, because it is based on one’s criminal record. (Alexander, 175-176)
Now once a person has committed a crime, they are taken the right to vote. Now they do not have the same rights, even if they have learned from their mistakes and are trying to become a better person. Societies has created a cycle were most black men fall into and are not able to get out of, which creates a place for them to be absent from their families and get discriminated once they get out of prison.
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New, 2010. Print.
Pilgrim, Dr. David. "What Was Jim Crow?" Ferris State University: Michigan College Campuses in Big Rapids MI, Grand Rapids MI, Off Campus Locations Across Michigan. Ferris State University, Sept. 2000. Web. 15 Mar. 2012.
Jesse Pinkney
ReplyDeleteProfessor Wanda Sabir
English 5
20 March 2012
Jim Crow Essay
Jim Crow is the name of the racial caste system operated primarily in the southern and border states between 1877 and the mid 1960’s. Under Jim Crow African Americans were considered second class citizens and it represented the legitimization of anti-Black racism. Many Christian ministers and theologians taught that whites were the chosen people, and that blacks were cursed to be servants. They also believed that God supported racial segregation. Politicians gave speeches on the danger of integration while newspaper and magazine writers referred to blacks as niggers, coons, and darkies. Jim Crow etiquette excluded blacks from public transport and facilities, juries, jobs, and neighborhoods. The Supreme Court undermined the rights of blacks with the Plessy vs. Ferguson case which legitimized Jim Crow laws and the Jim Crow way of life.
Michelle Alexander wrote “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.” Alexander declares that the new Jim Crow era is presently locking up our kids and creating criminals for petty crimes. Alexander compares the new Jim Crow with the Jim Crow of the past and cites that the new era is more dangerous because many are unaware of the system setup for their failure.
Bill Frezza, contributor for Forbes, points out one minor “caveat.” Frezza ponders, “If you lived in a police state with half your friends in jail, knowing you might be pulled over on a pretext at any moment, why in the world would you drive around with marijuana in your car?” (Frezza). We live in a culture where it is cool to be in gangs, sell drugs, go to jail, and not finish high school. We have become our worst enemies and support the new Jim Crow era by participating in a culture that praises the outcome of this caste. Until minorities realize that they are a marked target, they will continue to fall into this new era of Jim Crow without much help from the oppressor.
Work Cited:
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New Press, 2010. Print
"What Was Jim Crow?" Ferris State University:http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm
Frezza, Bill. "Is Drug War Driven Mass Incarceration the New Jim Crow?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 28 Feb. 2012. Web. 16 Mar. 2012. .
Adalie Villalobos
ReplyDeleteMs. Wanda
English 5 11-12:15pm
Jim Crow Power
The term Jim Crow is believed to have originated around 1830 when a white, minstrel show performer, Thomas "Daddy" Rice, blackened his face with charcoal paste or burnt cork and danced a ridiculous jig while singing the lyrics to the song, "Jump Jim Crow." Rice created this character after seeing (while traveling in the South) a crippled, elderly black man (or some say a young black boy) dancing and singing a song ending with these chorus words: "Weel about and turn about and do jis so, Eb'ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow."
Jim Crow laws are about power. Power of one race over another. These laws really highlight the flaws and weakness of human nature. One group of people asserting power over another for the pride and vanity of a system of politics that had been defeated at the cost of thousands of American lives during the civil war. The term "Jim Crow" has its origins of interest also. The interpretation was intended to ridicule the African American by white American's in the position of power. The Jim Crow laws were initiated after the civil war during the deconstruction of the new south and they help to create a racial caste system in the American South.
These laws were protected by the constitution and were a form of constitutional racism. When the Supreme Court ruled on Plessy v. Ferguson the Federal Government legalized racism but under the guise of a doctrine referred to as "separate but equal". The Jim Crow laws were in place until the Supreme Court of 1954 threw them out with it's ruling on Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka. This court had a different opinion of equality. Soon after the Reconstruction, African Americans and whites Americans ate in the same restaurants, often rode toget. It is important to note that the Jim Crow laws were contrary to the laws of the Federal government that guaranteed civil rights to African Americans. The Jim Crow laws could not gain the necessary traction unless they received legislative support from the Supreme Court.
This support came via the case Plessy vs. Ferguson. In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that the Louisiana law that required separate but equal conditions for blacks and whites on trains was constitutional. This ruling made it legal to have segregation as long as the conditions were comparable.
The Jim Crow regime comprised a set of laws and norms for ethical behavior. The laws excluded blacks from public transport and facilities, juries, jobs, and neighborhoods. Some examples of laws are Libraries (the) state librarian is directed to fit up and maintain a separate place for the use of the colored people who may come to the library for the purpose of reading books or periodicals. Then there were the laws against intermarriage Intermarriage The marriage of a white person with a negro or mulatto or person who shall have one-eighth or more of negro blood, shall be unlawful and void.
Work Cited:
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New Press, 2010. Print
"What Was Jim Crow?" Ferris State University:http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm
Frezza, Bill. "Is Drug War Driven Mass Incarceration the New Jim Crow?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 28 Feb. 2012. Web. 16 Mar. 2012. .