this tall blue library (#57406) has the usual fiction, children's and nonfiction books. it's height indicates it's not the usual mail order model.
reads: "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness"(Michell Alexander)
*slavery in South, then Jim Crow laws, now morphed to mass incarceration
-caste system in US has always existed. it's a "free" labor source in the South. now "race neutral" drug laws creates mass incarceration, i.e. "free" labor.
-War on drugs disproportionately affects black & brown communities
*rock cocaine convictions prison time are 100X times harsher than for powder cocaine. black communities use rock, white society uses powder.
*police have no oversight in "stop & frisk" arrests in minority communities. white communities have no "stop & frisk" arrests unless minorities enter majority white communities. courts routinely approve convictions from searches without cause.
*asset forfeiture from "drug arrests" funds police departments.
*fed. authorities furnishes police dept. with SWAT equipment, armor vehicles, extra funding for each drug arrests, even if searches were "illegal".
-arrested drug offenders have no legal counsel. they do not understand consequences of pleading guilty to minor crimes, even with no prison time
-80-90% of minor drug arrestees are African Americans
-convicted drug offenders tainted for life-not eligible for public assistance, loses right to vote, can't find legit employment.
-"Where have all the black men gone?" ? never answered. Answer: Prison.
-collective denial re: mass incarceration in general populace.
no "innocent" defendants so allies like civil rights attorneys focus on affirmative action progress instead.
similarity of Jim crow laws to mass incarceration:
-detracts working class whites' attention away from economic issues to scapegoating African Americans for mutual poverty.
-racially segregates people into 2 worlds
-depends on legal and political disenfranchisement to survive. read more