The New Jim Crow

By Melody Andrews

Usually, I am extremely critical of conspiracy theories.  That includes but is not limited to Big Foot, the Abominable Snowman and recent Illuminati theories.  Let me be clear, that there is always a thin line between a conspiracy and a coincidence. With that being said, there are a lot of incidents in society that make me think there a little deeper than sheer coincidences.  One being the number of African Americans incarcerated.  But that’s as far as I ever took it. I never really did any research on it or looked up facts to support my position. I guess you can say I just sort of accepted it as fact.  Luckily, I was never in an instance where I had to debate the truth in that belief.

            So I guess that is why the most interesting part of this week’s module was listening to Michelle Alexander the author of The New Jim Crow discussing her book. Even though, I have recently read Let’s Get Free by Paul Butler, I read it with a bit of cynicism due to the fact that Butler, a former prosecutor, was arrested for a crime he didn’t commit before he realized the injustices of mass incarceration.  Although, a very potent and fascinating literary work, I sort of thought Butler had a chip on his shoulder.  For me Alexander was a more balanced and credible source (I think it’s my inner-journalist that looks for an unbiased storyteller). 

            Within the five minutes of her discussion I was hooked.  I can recall hearing people say that prison is a new form of slavery and I have often stated so myself, however when Alexander stated that there are currently more African Americans under correctional control than the number of slaves in 1850, I was sort of shocked. My mother is a genealogist and has discovered in tracing our family’s lineage that a lot of times slave owners did not account for their entire human chattel.  But I would still really like to see what that number looks like.  If that many men and women are controlled by the state in terms of their whereabouts and their inability to have a voice in the voting process, then in essence the state is controlling a certain percentage of the populous.  Coincidence?

            In 2008, Barack Obama won the presidency of the United States.  Early criticism of the election results stated that it was the black voters to essentially blame for his success.  But considering that blacks, according to the 2010 Census data, are only 12.6% of the population and not all of those individuals vote, that could not have been possible. And that is exactly what I would fire back when my Caucasian classmates and coworkers would discuss their disdain at the results.  Now looking at the information shared by Alexander, the actual number of African –American people who voted for Obama was far less than what is commonly thought since so many in the  African American population do not have the right to the vote.  It may not fit the science fiction definition, but it most definitely is mind control.  Coincidence?

            Anyone who watches any sort of news program cannot deny that most of America’s (and the rest of the world for that matter) woes are usually blamed on one man: President Obama.  And most of the time it doesn’t really matter if it is really his fault or not.  I say this to say that in politics there must always be a scapegoat.  One thing that T.I. stated in Hip Hop vs. America is that hip hop is used as a scapegoat for the world’s problems, especially crime and the moral decline of America.  What do hip hop and Obama have in common?  They both overwhelmingly appear as black. Coincidence?

            I think not, but I do think that it has a lot to say about race relations in the United States.  Clearly, having a black president does not make all the scars of racial strife disappear.  In a sense, I think that the blame game exists on both sides.  It is not uncommon in the African-American population to hear someone say that everything is “the man’s” fault, “the man” always being white.  Conversely, to some Caucasians everything is the fault of African Americans and other minorities.  Is it right? No, but it’s what keeps us divided and distracted from discovering the root of it all.  After that, maybe we can get more free and reverse the new Jim Crow.