Get to Know Me: The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

For this Get to Know Me, for Black History Month, I'd like to recommend a fantastic book and thesis: that the "criminal justice system" in the United States is the new face of Jim Crow, ie the way that dominant white power structures create a permanent under caste made up primarily of African Americans. Nowadays, unable to legally discriminate against black people, the system labels them as "felons" for minor crimes (which when done by white people especially those in the middle class are never prosecuted). Once they've been so labeled, it becomes legal to discriminate against these people for voting, housing, and jobs, for the rest of their lives.

It's a powerful argument and one that can shift the way you see cops and laws from a system with many problems of racism in it, to an actually racist system, whose purpose is to enforce existing dominance.

Listen to this interview with Michelle Alexander the author, then check out the book via your local bookstore.