The Immersion Library

The nature of the criminal justice system has changed. It is no longer primarily concerned with the prevention and punishment of crime, but rather with the management and control of the dispossessed.

If one picks up The New Jim Crow expecting only to find prison statistics; expecting to bolster their data arsenal for regurgitation at their next friendly social justice debate; expecting to examine a rumored, far away judicial pandemic – they would instead discover a plague horrifyingly close to their doorstep, an unapologetic mirror so near their nose that they reel backwards grasping desperately for their comforting biases and myths.

I fell before I could grasp mine.

Rather than rehashing Alexander’s facts and arguments – her brilliant opening and closing trial statements – I will reflect on the questions I asked myself throughout the book. I imagined a person next to me deflecting Alexander’s points. And while she does speak to that person, I feel frustrated by another book which cannot provide the next steps; either passing that person by or with that person “converted” and in toe. Of course, I treat Alexander unfairly as she explicitly states that she has no intention of providing any cures or solutions. Like many of us, I seek that cure and need to remind myself that not everyone with a perspective has that cure. We don’t need a savior. I implore you not to diservice yourself by ignoring this book because it does not offer an answer.

It does, however, unabashedly describe the ill. Perhaps Alexander speaks to the cure in this way. Rather than offering a cure, she talks to it as it sits in its chair reading about a rampant disease thriving due to its own inaction; neglecting its duty and purpose.

The disease of greed manifests itself within our country via symptoms such as American slavery, the original Jim Crow and mass incarceration. Black and brown people wither away from this virus because the power hierarchy in America began with race – the power and wealth held by white men depended on the subjugation of the “other”. Now hundreds of years later the power of whiteness still depends on that same oppression. But during this same hundreds of years later we have learned to ignore data and cover up maladies with ideas of “personal responsibility” and “choice”. Where is Brock Turner’s mandatory minimum? Why won’t we condemn him to a life under the “felon” brand citing “personal responsibility”? I find the answer simple. The American criminal justice system functions less to impart justice and more to maintain a power hierarchy and protect a particular social class.

“Hard work” and “just reward” they will say. Work to succeed despite the odds. Only then will we respect and accept you. Nevermind that we never faced those same odds. Nevermind that we had respect before earning it. Don’t look at the cracks and flaws in our system. Instead, judge the “others” for not making “better” decisions under the unjust circumstances we never had to endure. Americans accept these illogical biases and myths because we want to feel justified in having when others have not. If the system bends towards true justice many privileged Americans may end up in jail or fear real consequences for a “mistake of youth”. We call America the greatest country in the world even though she fails many of her citizens. Then we condemn those who work to see its greatness realized and call “others” the worst of society when we share more in common with them than we care to admit. These myths – this disease – won’t go away until the cure, the American citizen, rebukes them and gets to work.