Atlantic: Mapping the New Jim Crow

[Skidmore]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/10/mapping-the-new-jim-crow/381617/

Mapping the New Jim Crow
America's entire history is marked by the state imposing unfreedom on a large swath of the African American population.
TA-NEHISI COATESOCT 17 2014, 2:19 PM ET



I think this chart which ran with Theodore Johnson's excellent piece appraising "Black America" as a country gives us some sense of the beast with which Michelle Alexander was grappling. Another factoid to consider while looking at this: "No other country in the world imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities," writes Alexander. "The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid."

Somehow, looking at this, the term "mass incarceration" seems not to capture exactly what this country is doing to its African American population. Does this equal a "new Jim Crow?" The more I think about it, the less important I find the debate to be. Was convict-leasing really "slavery by another name?" I'm not quite convinced. But at the same time the greater point seems to be that America's entire history is marked by the state imposing unfreedom on a large swath of the African American population. Whatever the successes of the past 50 years, there is no evidence that that trend has ended.

I would be remiss if I did not offer two other entries into the debate. Here is law professor James Forman's critique of The New Jim Crow. Forman mostly agrees with Alexander but offers an argument for jettisoning the "Jim Crow" framing. In support of Alexander, I offer the concluding words from chapter three of Randall Kennedy's Race, Crime and the Law. Kennedy published his book in 1997, but this section—on inmate rights—feels especially relevant to our conversation:

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[Dont call me Shirley]

1. 18 cents average per hour, fits nicely in with the "level the playing field" crowd

http://www.epi.org/publication/webfeatures_snapshots_archive_08212002/

It's still slavery, only in a different package.

[Faux pas]

2. Kickin'