{"id":2239,"date":"2011-04-03T10:24:28","date_gmt":"2011-04-03T14:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/more-african-american-men-are-in-prison-or-jail-on-probation-or-parole-than-were-enslaved-in-1850-be.html"},"modified":"2011-04-03T10:24:28","modified_gmt":"2011-04-03T14:24:28","slug":"more-african-american-men-are-in-prison-or-jail-on-probation-or-parole-than-were-enslaved-in-1850-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/more-african-american-men-are-in-prison-or-jail-on-probation-or-parole-than-were-enslaved-in-1850-be.html","title":{"rendered":"“More African American men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began” –Michelle Alexander"},"content":{"rendered":"Dick Price writes that\n\nMore Black Men Now in Prison System than Were Enslaved<\/a>,\n
\n\n<\/a>\n“More African American men are in prison or jail, on probation or\nparole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began,” Michelle\nAlexander told a standing room only house at the Pasadena Main Library\nthis past Wednesday, the first of many jarring points she made in a\nriveting presentation.\n<\/blockquote>\nShe’s written a best-selling book,\nThe New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness,\nand she discusses the problem:\n\n\n
\n\n<\/a>\nGrowing crime rates over the past 30 years don\u2019t explain the\nskyrocketing numbers of black — and increasingly brown —\nmen caught in\nAmerica\u2019s prison system, according to Alexander, who clerked for Supreme\nCourt Justice Harry Blackmun after attending Stanford Law. “In fact,\ncrime rates have fluctuated over the years and are now at historical\nlows.”\n<\/blockquote>\nSo why are so many people locked up?\n
\n“Most of that increase is due to the War on Drugs, a war waged almost\nexclusively in poor communities of color,” she said, even though studies\nhave shown that whites use and sell illegal drugs at rates equal to or\nabove blacks. In some black inner-city communities, four of five black\nyouth can expect to be caught up in the criminal justice system during\ntheir lifetimes.\n<\/blockquote>\nAnd what’s the result?\n
\nAs a consequence, a great many black men are disenfranchised, said\nAlexander — prevented because of their felony convictions from voting\nand from living in public housing, discriminated in hiring, excluded\nfrom juries, and denied educational opportunities.\n<\/blockquote>\nThe new Jim Crow.\n

\nHere is Michelle Alexander talking about all this on\n\nThe Washington Report:<\/a>\n

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