The New Jim Crow

Abstract

Once in a great while a book comes along that changes the way we see the world and helps to fuel a nationwide social movement. <i>The New Jim Crow</i> is such a book. Praised by Harvard Law professor Lani Guinier as "brave and bold," this book directly challenges the notion that the election of Barack Obama signals a new era of colorblindness. With dazzling candor, legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." By targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control—relegating millions to a permanent second-class status—even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness. In the words of Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, this book is a "call to action."<br><br>Called "stunning" by Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David Levering Lewis, "invaluable" by the <i>Daily Kos</i>, "explosive" by <i>Kirkus</i>, and "profoundly necessary" by the <i>Miami Herald</i>, this updated and revised paperback edition of <i>The New Jim Crow</i>, now with a foreword by Cornel West, is a must-read for all people of conscience.