Title: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Author: Michelle Alexander
Thoughts: This book is incredible—incredibly written, incredibly detailed, incredibly frustrating, incredibly moving. It lays out the issues with the criminal justice and penal system and the way it acts as a system of control over disproportionally high levels of Black and Brown Americans. It focuses heavily on the “War on Drugs” which was waged primarily—and almost exclusively—as a means of continuing and expanding the mass incarceration of these individuals. Alexander discusses felon disenfranchisement and the stigma that is left on people and their communities. I highly recommend if you’re hoping to learn more about race and class in America!
