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8 Ways the Incarceration of Black Males Is the New Jim Crow

In her groundbreaking book, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that “we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.” Alexander contends that by targeting Black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control — relegating millions to a permanent second-class status — even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness. The following concepts are taken from her book:

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‘Criminal’ Has Replaced ‘Ni**er’ as a Slur for Black Men

Rather than overtly talk about, and exclude anyone on the basis of race (a socially unacceptable practice nowadays), bigots, and those complicit with bigotry, have learned to use the criminal justice system to label people of color “criminals” and then practice all of the old techniques of social control that were supposedly left behind.

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