My Very First Blog Ever!

An Entirely New Racial Caste System and its Transformation from Jim Crow...

March 18, 2018

Hello readers!

Welcome to my first blog ever to date. This is going to be quite the learning experience for me and I am hoping I don't fail miserably.

Let's get started!
The New Jim Crow written by Michelle Alexander, a highly acclaimed civil rights advocate, lawyer, and legal scholar, focuses on the birth of a new Jim Crow in society today. Yes, the very laws that enforced the segregation of blacks and whites. You may be wondering how this could be possible. In today's "progressive society", the society that just elected an African American president for two terms, has a set of laws that are suppressing and limiting our African American population? The answer is absolutely, however it is rarely discussed in this era of "colorblindness". It is almost never covered by the media and Alexander's book is the first of it's kind to openly explore the concept of mass incarceration.

It is our nation's criminal justice system. The policies are highly divisive and discriminating. Yet this is nothing new. This monster of a system has been growing for quite some time. Ever since the termination of slavery, upper-class whites have continued to ensure their economic and social position. By any means necessary, they continued to suppress and discriminate against the African American population and others. They succeeded within the Jim Crow laws, within "law and order rhetoric", and finally within mass incarceration that can be seen today.

Michelle Alexander is clearly a skilled and knowledgeable writer. Her writing style is primarily expository, however, I foresee her style of writing change as the book progresses. Nearing the end of her book, I expect to see more of her opinion displayed within her writing. Alexander effectively introduces this concept of mass incarceration in the first chapter. She clearly summarizes the entire history of black oppression in the United States and describes the birth of a new Jim Crow, which she has defined as "mass incarceration". One of the major appeals she utilizes is logos. Through the entirety of my recent read, she cited scholarly articles, books, speeches, statements from well-known individuals and more. Clear examples of logos can be seen throughout her novel. Some examples that certainly stood out to me were, "Ninety percent of those admitted for drug offenses in many states were black or Latino...(Alexander, 58)" and "In less than thirty years, the U.S. penal system exploded from around 300,000 to more than 2 million...(Alexander, 7). These statements caught me by surprise! She includes these shocking statements to catch readers like me off guard with surprising evidence. But not only to catch you off guard, but to also prove that she is knowledgeable and has done the research, thus strengthening her ethos. Alexander did an excellent job of combining ethos and logos, but I wondered about pathos. Alexander included little pathos, yet she was still able to pull on my heartstrings? She has a rare talent of  appealing to your emotions without actually appealing to your emotions! Strange, for sure, but Alexander certainly knows what she is doing.

Alexander wants to start a conversation. Her purpose of this novel is to open our eyes to the reality of America's criminal justice system. However, the first chapter is primarily to provide the reader with background information. She develops her argument by giving the readers insight of the history of our country and how mass incarceration came to be. Although Alexander does make many claims, she does support them with evidence. It is clear that she worked diligently to find sources to back up her statements, which can be seen in her thirty-three pages of sources and notes. Overall, this chapter began leading me to her main argument and preparing me for her main points in the chapters to come.

So far, I am really glad I chose this book. Not only has it piqued my interest, but many across the United States as well. In fact, according to an article from The New York Times, Why Are American Prisons So Afraid of This Book, Florida and North Carolina prisoners are restricted from this book. The New Jim Crow has become so influential, that it has been banned to keep those incarcerated oblivious. This simply recognizes how impactful and significant this book has become. Even though I have only read the first chapter, I expect that this book will continue to surprise me and open my eyes to what is really going on in my country.

Citations

Bromwich, Jonah Engel. “Why Are American Prisons So Afraid of This Book?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 Jan. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/us/new-jim-crow-book-ban-prison.html.

The News Press. Michelle Alexander. Ohio, 2017.