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

Part of TALK series, Civil Rights Revisited
Discussion led by Dennis Etzel Jr.

Author Michelle Alexander meticulously examines the role of race in the American judicial system. In a powerful tour de force she steps back, looks at the big picture, and concludes that the prison industrial complex picks up where slavery and Jim Crow segregation left off. She demonstrates how today's conditions perpetuate a system that discriminates against people of color through the War on Drugs. "No other country in the world imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities," Alexander writes. In fact, "the United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid." Beyond this lurks the fact that once a person is branded a felon, it is legal to discriminate against him or her in employment, housing, and education. He or she is excluded from voting, jury service, and often denied public benefits. All of this adds up to effectively creating a caste system as a result of mass incarceration.

Sponsored by: Parsons Public Library

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For more information about this event, please contact:
Andrea Burgess
(620) 421-5920
http://www.parsonslibrary.org