criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control, even as it formally adheres to the principle of color blindness. Alexander shows that, by targeting black men and decimating communities of color, the U.S. In this incisive critique, former litigator-turned-legal-scholar Michelle Alexander provocatively argues that we have not ended racial caste in America: we have simply redesigned it. Although Jim Crow laws have been wiped off the books, an astounding percentage of the African American community remains trapped in a subordinate status-much like their grandparents before them. Today, Cotton cannot vote because he, like many black men in the United States, has been labeled a felon and is currently on parole."Īs the United States celebrates the nation's "triumph over race" with the election of Barack Obama, the majority of young black men in major American cities are locked behind bars or have been labeled felons for life. His grandfather was prevented from voting by Klan intimidation his father was barred by poll taxes and literacy tests. His great-grandfather was beaten to death by the Klu Klux Klan for attempting to vote. "Jarvious Cotton's great-great-grandfather could not vote as a slave.
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