Final Thoughts
Hello everyone, and welcome to my very last blog post (probably ever, to be honest). *sheds a tear.* In this fifth and final post, I'd like to talk about my final thoughts about The New Jim Crow, having finished the book now (yay!!). I'm basically going to be doing this in an essay format. The prompt I'll respond to? A question that I was asking myself throughout the book:
What actions can be taken and changes made to eliminate the caste system and the racial inequalities that infect our country today?
Michelle Alexander mentions a couple of solutions in the sixth chapter of The New Jim Crow, but for the most part, she took on the role of a messenger to mainly raise awareness of these issues, leaving much to the reader's imagination. She certainly made me think; again, throughout the book, the main question I was asking myself was How? Well, I've thought on it enough to form an argument I think, and I've decided that I agree with Michelle Alexander: the most beneficial steps we can take towards social progress would be to put an end to the War on Drugs, reshape the culture of today's law enforcement system, and eliminate "colorblindness." It also came clear to me throughout the book (with or without Alexander's written confirmation of my own beliefs) that these things must be done all together in order to make any sort of significant impact; none of them can stand on their own.
I would like to open my brief discussion of the War on Drugs with a fact/quote from Alexander on page 230 of The New Jim Crow: "If we hope to return to the rate of incarceration of the 1970s...we would need to release approximately 4 out of 5 people currently behind bars today." I
think it goes without saying that this is an appallingly high number. An extremely large portion of these arrests and imprisonments have been due to drug-related crimes since the 1970s (which, as I have discussed in my previous blog posts, black people are arrested for at a rate much higher than whites). Ending the War on Drugs would result in many less of what I consider to be paranoid arrests. In my opinion, many of these arrests are made and sentences made so drastic so that the police look as though they are doing something productive. Combine that with the staggeringly unequal racial incarceration rates and what do you get? Millions of black men and women behind bars serving harsh sentences, therefore resulting in owing a great deal of money in fees and taxes because of their imprisonment and being forced to neglect their families all the while. Mind you, ending the War on Drugs would not completely eliminate unfair arrests, but it's certainly a step in the right direction. Perhaps the positive sociological changes that would result from the War on Drugs would open the public's eyes to the judicial issues of America's past and prevent history from repeating itself. It is with a tired heart that I must add, however, that America as a whole has seemed to find ways to continue discrimination before. Maybe this time, as we have (granted, slowly) allowed tolerance to grow over the years, we won't go down that road yet again. No one can deny that progress has been made, but not nearly enough.
In order for the number of African-American arrests to go down to a more reasonable amount, there must be a change in the overall law enforcement culture to try and reduce the number of things that those working in law enforcement may do to act on implicit bias. There are a couple of ways to go about accomplishing this, one of which I did not really think about until English class today (4/12). Police brutality, particularly towards African-Americans, often results from police officers reacting on impulse instead of thinking through what they are about to do. More often than not, people get hurt or are killed as a result. Implicit bias towards different races is the most likely factor at the root of this problem. Today in class, we went over the possibility that perhaps cops could undergo training of some sort in which they could learn to better react to situations that present themselves to them. Instead of immediately assuming that (to use a real-world example) a young black man has a gun, when in reality he has a cell phone, cops can approach the situation with greater caution and assess it fully before any harm comes to anyone. I do not have any specific ideas myself on how to do this, but I agree with the concept, and I also believe that experts who could come up with things like that would find it beneficial to both cops and the black community. On a different note, I have a great deal of respect for both white and African-American police officers who joined in order to try and make the criminal justice system fairer and more equal. These particular people are there because they are aware of the racial disparities in arrests and incarcerations, and they are willing and able to do something about it. It takes a significant amount of bravery in order to do this, and I am very grateful for the protection and honesty of the cops who do their best to protect everyone in America, regardless of skin color.
Finally, the third big change that Alexander brings up that we can make is getting rid of what we call "colorblindness." In other words, it is absolutely necessary that everyone is aware of the different races that we all share our world with so that we can embrace and appreciate them all equally. In order to help me argue this point using more opinions than solely that of the author of the book I read, I found an article online from The Atlantic entitled "Why Color-Blindness is a Counterproductive Ideology." The article states, "There are more than a few members of the 'academic left' who argue that colorblindness is problematic precisely because it offers a way to avoid addressing social problems." In the case of The New Jim Crow, the social problem is the unjust mass incarceration of African-Americans. Saying that we are color-blind allows us to compile all of the incarcerations into one big number, which does not allow us to see the disparities between white and black arrests. Thus, it is necessary for us to see race so that we can maintain equality not just in the criminal justice system, but in all aspects of life.
So. How can we eliminate today's racial caste system and get rid of the inequalities in the criminal justice system? By ending the War on Drugs, starting over and essentially updating the culture of the law enforcement system, and erasing the idea that colorblindness is doing good instead of harm. If you're saying to yourself as you read that these things seem daunting, I absolutely agree with you, and they won't happen overnight. However, even just being aware of them allows us to start taking steps in the right direction: towards liberty and justice for all. If we as a nation are willing to acknowledge our flaws and act on the possible solutions to our undeniable problems, changes can be made. It has happened before, and it will happen again, as long as we stand together.
Thank you so much for reading my blog and following my thoughts and opinions on The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander! I admit, I was wary about blog posts at first, and though it's required me to put in some hard work and think in ways I haven't really before, it's definitely been worth it. I really enjoyed the book and learned a lot from it, and I'd highly recommend it to any of my readers who may be interested. Thank you again for your attentiveness! Bye for now!
Works Cited:
African-American Cops. 2018, Modern American History.
Irving, Debby. I Don't See Race. 2018.
War on Drugs Protest. 2013, The Grio, Washington, D.C.
White Privilege Protest. 2016, The Poetic Arsenal.
Wingfield, Adia Harvey. "Why Color-Blindness is a Counterproductive Ideology."
The Atlantic, 13 Sept. 2015, www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/
09/color-blindness-is-counterproductive/405037/. Accessed 12 Apr. 2018.
What actions can be taken and changes made to eliminate the caste system and the racial inequalities that infect our country today?
Michelle Alexander mentions a couple of solutions in the sixth chapter of The New Jim Crow, but for the most part, she took on the role of a messenger to mainly raise awareness of these issues, leaving much to the reader's imagination. She certainly made me think; again, throughout the book, the main question I was asking myself was How? Well, I've thought on it enough to form an argument I think, and I've decided that I agree with Michelle Alexander: the most beneficial steps we can take towards social progress would be to put an end to the War on Drugs, reshape the culture of today's law enforcement system, and eliminate "colorblindness." It also came clear to me throughout the book (with or without Alexander's written confirmation of my own beliefs) that these things must be done all together in order to make any sort of significant impact; none of them can stand on their own.I would like to open my brief discussion of the War on Drugs with a fact/quote from Alexander on page 230 of The New Jim Crow: "If we hope to return to the rate of incarceration of the 1970s...we would need to release approximately 4 out of 5 people currently behind bars today." I
think it goes without saying that this is an appallingly high number. An extremely large portion of these arrests and imprisonments have been due to drug-related crimes since the 1970s (which, as I have discussed in my previous blog posts, black people are arrested for at a rate much higher than whites). Ending the War on Drugs would result in many less of what I consider to be paranoid arrests. In my opinion, many of these arrests are made and sentences made so drastic so that the police look as though they are doing something productive. Combine that with the staggeringly unequal racial incarceration rates and what do you get? Millions of black men and women behind bars serving harsh sentences, therefore resulting in owing a great deal of money in fees and taxes because of their imprisonment and being forced to neglect their families all the while. Mind you, ending the War on Drugs would not completely eliminate unfair arrests, but it's certainly a step in the right direction. Perhaps the positive sociological changes that would result from the War on Drugs would open the public's eyes to the judicial issues of America's past and prevent history from repeating itself. It is with a tired heart that I must add, however, that America as a whole has seemed to find ways to continue discrimination before. Maybe this time, as we have (granted, slowly) allowed tolerance to grow over the years, we won't go down that road yet again. No one can deny that progress has been made, but not nearly enough.
In order for the number of African-American arrests to go down to a more reasonable amount, there must be a change in the overall law enforcement culture to try and reduce the number of things that those working in law enforcement may do to act on implicit bias. There are a couple of ways to go about accomplishing this, one of which I did not really think about until English class today (4/12). Police brutality, particularly towards African-Americans, often results from police officers reacting on impulse instead of thinking through what they are about to do. More often than not, people get hurt or are killed as a result. Implicit bias towards different races is the most likely factor at the root of this problem. Today in class, we went over the possibility that perhaps cops could undergo training of some sort in which they could learn to better react to situations that present themselves to them. Instead of immediately assuming that (to use a real-world example) a young black man has a gun, when in reality he has a cell phone, cops can approach the situation with greater caution and assess it fully before any harm comes to anyone. I do not have any specific ideas myself on how to do this, but I agree with the concept, and I also believe that experts who could come up with things like that would find it beneficial to both cops and the black community. On a different note, I have a great deal of respect for both white and African-American police officers who joined in order to try and make the criminal justice system fairer and more equal. These particular people are there because they are aware of the racial disparities in arrests and incarcerations, and they are willing and able to do something about it. It takes a significant amount of bravery in order to do this, and I am very grateful for the protection and honesty of the cops who do their best to protect everyone in America, regardless of skin color.
Finally, the third big change that Alexander brings up that we can make is getting rid of what we call "colorblindness." In other words, it is absolutely necessary that everyone is aware of the different races that we all share our world with so that we can embrace and appreciate them all equally. In order to help me argue this point using more opinions than solely that of the author of the book I read, I found an article online from The Atlantic entitled "Why Color-Blindness is a Counterproductive Ideology." The article states, "There are more than a few members of the 'academic left' who argue that colorblindness is problematic precisely because it offers a way to avoid addressing social problems." In the case of The New Jim Crow, the social problem is the unjust mass incarceration of African-Americans. Saying that we are color-blind allows us to compile all of the incarcerations into one big number, which does not allow us to see the disparities between white and black arrests. Thus, it is necessary for us to see race so that we can maintain equality not just in the criminal justice system, but in all aspects of life.So. How can we eliminate today's racial caste system and get rid of the inequalities in the criminal justice system? By ending the War on Drugs, starting over and essentially updating the culture of the law enforcement system, and erasing the idea that colorblindness is doing good instead of harm. If you're saying to yourself as you read that these things seem daunting, I absolutely agree with you, and they won't happen overnight. However, even just being aware of them allows us to start taking steps in the right direction: towards liberty and justice for all. If we as a nation are willing to acknowledge our flaws and act on the possible solutions to our undeniable problems, changes can be made. It has happened before, and it will happen again, as long as we stand together.
Thank you so much for reading my blog and following my thoughts and opinions on The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander! I admit, I was wary about blog posts at first, and though it's required me to put in some hard work and think in ways I haven't really before, it's definitely been worth it. I really enjoyed the book and learned a lot from it, and I'd highly recommend it to any of my readers who may be interested. Thank you again for your attentiveness! Bye for now!
Works Cited:
African-American Cops. 2018, Modern American History.
Irving, Debby. I Don't See Race. 2018.
War on Drugs Protest. 2013, The Grio, Washington, D.C.
White Privilege Protest. 2016, The Poetic Arsenal.
Wingfield, Adia Harvey. "Why Color-Blindness is a Counterproductive Ideology."
The Atlantic, 13 Sept. 2015, www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/
09/color-blindness-is-counterproductive/405037/. Accessed 12 Apr. 2018.
Hi Grace!
ReplyDeleteAmazing job on this post and on your blog in general -- I've really enjoyed reading all of your thoughts. I think that the lesson about colorblindness being harmful is something that was pervasive throughout all of our books, or at least both Race and Jim Crow. It's something that doesn't sound evil, but can cause so much discord and harm.
Hi Grace! I thought you did a really nice job on this blog post in making breaking down the three main things that need to change. I also had this question, particularly in the last chapter, about how to go about this. One of the things I considered (that I don’t think was mentioned in the book, but I may have skimmed over it) was either removing the financial incentives for police officers to target drug crime, or shift those incentives to a more prevalent, destructive form of crime—alcohol-related, for example. Do you think this would have a significant effect on mass incarceration as a whole, or would it be too short-reaching?
ReplyDeleteHi Grace!
ReplyDeleteGreat ending post! Your question about how to end this racial caste system was something I frequently thought about while reading. I agree with all the points you made, that in order for it to be dismantled many things must change. I liked how you provided outside information that Alexander did not include in her own research.
Great work!
Ellie M
I like how you included images in your posts, as they balance with the text. Your focus on what can be done is also a great way to end the blog assignment. I wonder if there are articles you could find about attempts that are currently being made to help police officers be more sensitive to and aware of their biases? And don't worry, if you're talking AP Lit next year, you'll be blogging again!
ReplyDelete