I have just posted the following review on Amazon about Michelle Alexander’s THE NEW JIM CROW: MASS INCARCERATION IN THE AGE OF COLOR-BLINDNESS (New Press, 2010):
Michelle Alexander’s crystal-clear, tightly argued analysis of crime and race in America vibrates with justified outrage against the reappearance of a racial caste system in “the world’s freest country.” Alexander is clearly right to debunk the common notions that America’s crime-and-punishment system is colorblind and that those who engage in criminal activity have freely chosen their way of life. Her demonstration that the mass incarceration of people of color is a product of our current socioeconomic system seems to me unanswerable. My only criticism of the book is that it does not lay enough emphasis on the economic factors that produce these results and that will require structural changes to eliminate. Even so, I recommend that all my friends, colleagues, students, and readers READ THIS BOOK.
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yes- we can keep adjusting the chairs on the deck of the titannic- i e rehabilitative programs- forever- without an overall marxist analysis- and an attempt to move towards socialism, we are fiddling around
do you think this system is really going to move towards rehabilitating the underclass it keeps in prison while the over class crooks go free? inmates don’t vote and they’re brown skinned-
get real
but i love the good at heart- i worked in this field for over 30 years at the balto city jail-
but i think i am being realistic in my analysis
i never hear the left view necessary
Can’t argue with this at all, David. The real question for us now, I think, is how to define socialism in a way that makes sense to the American people (and others), and that avoids the errors of past ostensibly socialist systems. We ought to organize a conference to talk about this soon, don’t you think?
I feel so much happier now I uendstrand all this. Thanks!
Glad you found this interesting and useful. Now we need to figure out how to change this destructive system.
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