...Opinion Essay: Professor Michelle Alexander's speech The New Jim Crow (2010) In its broadest sense, The New Jim Crow (2010) provides a compelling analysis of how and why mass incarceration is happening in America. It offers an appropriate and original framework for understanding mass incarceration, its roots, link to Jim Crow, the modern caste system, and what must be done to eliminate it (Alexander, 2010). Alexander’s The New Jim Crow (2010) can be said to be a grand wake-up call in the midst of a long slumber of indifference to the poor and vulnerable. It also befits being described as a timely and stunning guide to the labyrinth of discrimination, racism, and propaganda policies cloaked under other names that comprise justice in America....
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...December 2015 Chapter 6: The Fire this Time Summary Analysis In the book, The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander discusses race-related issues specific to African-American males and mass incarceration in the United States, though Alexander notes that the discrimination faced by African-American males is also prevalent among other minorities and socio-economically disadvantaged populations. Alexander's central premise, from which the book derives its title, is that "mass incarceration is, metaphorically, the New Jim Crow keeping company with the final chapter of the New Jim Crow, “The Fire this Time,” this section is devoted to the question of where we go from here. Michelle Alexander argues that we, as a nation, have reached a fork in the road. Likewise, here at the end of our journey with her book, we find ourselves at a critical point of decision. What is required of us at this moment in history, a time when millions are cycling in and out of our nation’s prisons and jails trapped in a parallel social universe in which discrimination is perfectly legal? How do we show care and concern for the children who are born into communities where the majority of men and growing numbers of women can expect to spend time behind bars? What must we do, now that we know that the usual justifications do not hold water, and that a human rights nightmare is occurring on our watch? The New Jim Crow begins and ends with the assertion that nothing short...
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...false narrative that black people, through their many years of suffering, have finally overcome racism and triumphed over oppression. That itself is an example of violence. In the reading, “The New Jim Crow” Michelle Alexander states when speaking on Obama's rise to presidency,“There’s an implicit yet undeniable message embedded in his appearance on the world stage: this...
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...hidden agendas that maintain segregation and economic inequality, especially against African Americans. Kevin Kruse’s “Traffic” and Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” offer important perspectives on how. Historically, seemingly beneficial laws have excluded African Americans, and increased segregation and economic disparity. Kruse reveals how creating the US interstate highway system, to expand economic growth, disrupted black communities and restricted their access to better jobs, healthcare, and education. Furthermore, Alexander’s...
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...The New Jim Crow Dr. Michelle Alexander convincingly debates on her speech at the Riverside Church that America has not ended the racial discrimination yet. In fact, we did not really call it a racial discrimination, but we have used it in a new term as a caste system which is the same term as racial discrimination because we assign people into a different class. According to Dr. Michelle, there are more and more African Americans under correctional control these days than they were enslaved back in 1850. Also, Dr. Michelle briefly discussed about American racial history from the colonies era to the Clinton administration period. She defined it’s as a transformation into the war on drugs instead of the term racial discrimination. In her speech,...
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...Through her work this paper will consider how the reduction of funding to public schools and an increase in police presences in schools contributes to the over represented bodies affected by other discriminating policies against communities of color. In addition to her work on school systems we can examine the reasons why funding for a large Sr. center and massive War Memorial was more critical than school funding and environmental increase of recycling services. Completing this analysis, we’ll evaluate why politics is not always the best answer to address economic disparities in predominantly black and brown...
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...In the article “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander, it is stated that “more African American adults are under correctional control today- in prison or jail, on probation or parole- than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the civil war began” (pg. 183). The author of this article was featured as one of the speakers in the film and she stated a similar statistic in the film, as well. This contributes to the racial caste and highlights the fact that in America we have always had a racial caste. Once a person of color receives a felony or is sent to a correctional facility, they are able to be legally discriminated and are added to this seemingly never ending caste...
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... A bstract This alternative plan paper examines the circumstances that have evolved as a incarceration of the Black community. In the last thirty years, the federal government of the United States of America has engaged in camp which has involved a variety of policies to stop the production, distribution and sale of illegal narcotics. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent in a war that has targeted the most vulnerable in our society, impacting its youth for generations to come. This alternative plan paper addresses the impact of the War on Drugs and the criminal justice policies that have impacted the life chances of Black youth nationwide and calls for a new social movement, introducing a 21st century Black Youth Manifesto to ask the youth of the Black community to pick up where previous social movements left off and take back their communities, their families, and reclaim their hope for the...
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...paper examines the circumstances that have evolved as a result of the Reagan Administration’s War on Drugs and the increase of mass incarceration of the Black community. In the last thirty years, the federal government of the United States of America has engaged in campaign known as the “War on Drugs,” which has involved a variety of policies to stop the production, distribution and sale of illegal narcotics. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent in a war that has targeted the most vulnerable in our society, impacting its youth for generations to come. This alternative plan paper addresses the impact of the War on Drugs and the criminal justice policies that have impacted the life chances of Black youth nationwide and calls for a new social movement, introducing a 21st century Black Youth Manifesto to ask the youth of the Black community to pick up where previous social movements left off and take back their communities, their families, and reclaim their hope for the future. 3 Table of Contents Abstract . . . . Chapter One: Introduction My Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Strain and...
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...The Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 and the Incarceration and Disparate Treatment of Other Undocumented Persons Emillia Victoria Roque Florida International University INTRODUCTION From the beginning of is time, the United States has been a country built upon a strong foundation of leading ideals that has attracted immigrants from across the globe, which through their own hard work, trials, and triumphs, have been able to help shape America to what it has become. People are desperate to come to and become a permanent part of this country for the promise of freedom and opportunities that they may never experience in their countries of origin, such as proper health care, jobs, freedom of religion and more; opportunities that should be a right to all people. In 2008 about 11 million people were reported to be undocumented (Presten, 2012 ). While it is amazing to live in a country that can provide all these chances for people, there are several controversial issues that have arisen among the years due to the copious amounts of illegal immigrants in the residing in the country. One of the most talked about issues is that immigrants are able to readily use our resources such as health care, welfare and schools but are not legally able to pay the proper taxation for those services. In this country immigrants are often categorized as hinders to our country but they can be considered the backbone of the American society. It is more than a necessity that the American...
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...Ohio State University law professor and civil rights activist Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," reports there are more African American men in prison and jail, or on probation and parole, than were slaves before the start of the Civil War. Statistics reported in 2006, by the U.S .Department of Justice, Bureau of Statistics support this claim, which show that Blacks made up 41 percent of the nation’s 2 million prison and jail inmates, while Non-Hispanic whites made up 37 percent and Hispanics made up 19 percent. The disproportionate ratio of blacks to whites who are incarcerated is especially great in Iowa, Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South Dakota – greater than 10-to-1 (USJB, 2006). Why this structural inequality towards African Americans is happening, why it matters, and suggestions to rectify this, are issues that are discussed in this paper. Why is this happening? Since 1970, the U.S. has experienced a large and rapid increase in the rate at which people, regardless of race, are housed in federal and state correctional facilities (Snyder, 2011). This rapid growth in the prison population has been attributed in a large part to the rate at which individuals are incarcerated for drug offenses, especially minorities (Snyder, 2011). Between1995 and 2003, the number of people in state and federal prisons incarcerated for drug offenses increased by 21 percent, from 280,182 to 337...
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...Why Marijuana Should Remain Illegal Published: February 26, 1994 * Sign In to E-Mail * Print To the Editor: I read with concern "Legalizing Marijuana Would Allow Regulation of Its Potency" (letter, Feb. 13). According to the writer, marijuana with high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC (the chemical that causes the psychoactive effects on the abuser), is not a new phenomenon, and this high potency should not be used as a reason to keep marijuana illegal. Marijuana is not the same drug it was 20 years ago. Special fertilizers, plant hormones and steroids, carbon dioxide and advanced indoor horticulture techniques are used by the informed grower to "push" the plant to produce the highest grade, most potent variety of marijuana, sinsemilla. Because of its potency, domestic marijuana is the most highly prized cannabis product in the world. In 1970, the average THC content of a marijuana plant was 1.5 percent. The THC content of today's sinsemilla variety ranges from 8 percent to 20 percent. Today's marijuana is a drug that is significantly more potent than it was during the Woodstock era. The writer then states that "if the Government really believes that stronger varieties of marijuana are less desirable, then it has one more reason to support legalization. If cultivation of marijuana were legal, growers would not be pressed to produce the strongest possible product, and health authorities would be able to regulate its production and strength." This logic doesn't...
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...Contents Title Page Dedication Prologue CHAPTER ONE: Republicans and Democrats CHAPTER TWO: Values CHAPTER THREE: Our Constitution CHAPTER FOUR: Politics CHAPTER FIVE: Opportunity CHAPTER SIX: Faith CHAPTER SEVEN: Race CHAPTER EIGHT: The World Beyond Our Borders CHAPTER NINE: Family Epilogue Acknowledgments About the Author Also by Barack Obama Copyright Prologue IT’S BEEN ALMOST ten years since I first ran for political office. I was thirty-five at the time, four years out of law school, recently married, and generally impatient with life. A seat in the Illinois legislature had opened up, and several friends suggested that I run, thinking that my work as a civil rights lawyer, and contacts from my days as a community organizer, would make me a viable candidate. After discussing it with my wife, I entered the race and proceeded to do what every first-time candidate does: I talked to anyone who would listen. I went to block club meetings and church socials, beauty shops and barbershops. If two guys were standing on a corner, I would cross the street to hand them campaign literature. And everywhere I went, I’d get some version of the same two questions. “Where’d you get that funny name?” And then: “You seem like a nice enough guy. Why do you want to go into something dirty and nasty like politics?” I was familiar with the question, a variant on the questions asked of me years earlier, when I’d first arrived in Chicago to work in low-income neighborhoods. It signaled a cynicism...
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... . . .4 Office of the Chief of Police . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Strategic Plan Audit and Compliance Bureau Office of Internal Affairs Public Information Chief's Community Advisory Board Magnolia Station Grand Opening . . . . . . . . . .11 Riverside Police Department Facilities . . . . . .13 Administration Public Safety Communications . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Support Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Personnel Bureau Training Bureau Management Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Finance Payroll Grants Administration Fleet Services Facilities Management Court Services Unit (CSU) Alarm Enforcement Unit (EAU) Records Management Front Counters/Telephone Report Unit Automation and Digital Records Crime Analysis Unit (CAU) Property/Evidence Unit Operations Field Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Neighborhood Policing Centers (NPCs) Management Accountability Program (RPD~MAP) Watch Commanders Problem Oriented Policing (POP) Bike Team El Protector University Neighborhood Enhancement Team (UNET) Crime Statistics Special Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 Community Services Group Citizen Academy Crime Free Multi-Housing Neighborhood Watch Business Watch Youth Court METRO/SWAT & Aviation Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Mobile Field Force (MFF) Emergency Negotiations Team (ENT) Aviation Unit Traffic Bureau Field Accident Investigators Police Motor Officers Major Accident Investigations Team (MAIT) Traffic...
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...Social Change and Modernity Edited By Hans Haferkamp and Neil J. Smelser UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles Oxford © 1992 The Regents of the University of California INTRODUCTION Hans Haferkamp and Neil J. Smelser Haferkamp is grateful to Angelika Schade for her fruitful comments and her helpful assistance in editing this volume and to Geoff Hunter for translating the first German version of parts of the Introduction; Smelser has profited from the research assistance and critical analyses given by Joppke. 1. Social Change and Modernity Those who organized the conference on which this volume is based—including the editors— decided to use the terms "social change" and "modernity" as the organizing concepts for this project. Because these terms enjoy wide usage in contemporary sociology and are general and inclusive, they seem preferable to more specific terms such as "evolution" "progress," "differentiation," or even "development," many of which evoke more specific mechanisms, processes, and directions of change. Likewise, we have excluded historically specific terms such as "late capitalism" and "industrial society" even though these concepts figure prominently in many of the contributions to this volume. The conference strategy called for a general statement of a metaframework for the study of social change within which a variety of more specific theories could be identified. 2. Theories of Social Change Change is such an evident feature of...
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