In The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander asserts that the U.S. criminal justice system is currently functioning as a contemporary system of racial control, much like slavery and Jim Crow laws have in the past. She points out that though racial discrimination is no longer legal or socially acceptable, "discrimination in employment, housing, education, and public benefits; denial of the right to vote; and exclusion from jury service -- are suddenly legal once you're labeled a felon."
Alexander argues that the fact that over 50% of the young black men in any large U.S. city are either under the control of the state or saddled with a criminal record is not just a function of poverty or poor choices but "evidence of a new racial caste system at work."
If she is right, and the data certainly don't contradict her, there is no choice (for those interested in justice), but to mobilize for a new (and hopefully, final) civil rights movement.
For all the injustice we have wrought, there is still the opportunity for redemption.
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