The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

Michelle Alexander

Synopsis: An in depth look at the deeply rooted racism within our criminal justice system.

Warning! This book will blow your mind and completely change the way you think about crime and the criminal justice system!

I listened to The New Jim Crow on audiobook. I HIGHLY suggest NOT doing this. Buy a hard copy. Read it slowly. Absorb it and take notes. I am actually planning on ordering a copy so I can do just that. There is SO MUCH in this book, that it’s really hard to catch it all on audiobook. But if listening to it is going to get you to read it, then do it, because this book is SO important!

Michelle Alexander is not here to play. She goes deep! She goes all the way back to the slavery era to show how deeply rooted the problem truly is. She walks you through the entire process of how people are arrested, to plea bargaining, convictions, probation, parole, and beyond. She thoroughly addresses the numerous way in which our society is setting up black and brown people to fail. I can’t even begin to scratch the surface in a short review.

The New Jim Crow made me angry, sad, and at times rather nauseated. It’s hard to accept that what in this book is true. I grew up in a world where the police were there to protect us, and our criminal justice system was set up to make sure everyone got a fair trial, and we are innocent until proven guilty. It’s hard to accept that this is not the world everyone grows up in. There’s a world where people fear the police, and if you get arrested, you run the risk of being lost to the system, never to recover.

I listened to the 10th Anniversary edition. This edition included a very long preface by the author talking about how the book would be different if she had written it now (2020) versus when it was originally published (2010). The preface was interesting, but I didn’t feel it was entirely necessary. It was very long, and I felt like a lot of information was repeated other places in the book. However, she expressed her desire to revise the book to add current events, only to find that she would have to completely rewrite the book. I believe this desire is why the preface is so long, and in that it is understandable.

I will also add, there is a documentary on Netflix called 13th. I felt this was kind of a brief overview of The New Jim Crow, and Michelle Alexander is actually in it as well. Watch the movie, AND read the book! They are both incredible!