The New Jim CrowMichelle Alexander wrote a book called "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness." The original Jim Crow was a racial caste system that segregated whites from blacks, where whites were privileged and seen as the chosen ones while blacks were taught to be a minority and used as servants between 1877 and the 1960s. The Jim Crow system kept whites superior to blacks with laws created to keep whites favored. It was a legal way to prevent African Americans from getting an equal education and voting; it was a “Separate but Equal” system. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed to ban discrimination based on skin color. Although this law was passed, we still continue to live in a society where discrimination is quite prominent but systematic. Through Michelle Alexander's book we can understand her thesis that there is a new form of legal discrimination, although the laws state that discriminating against an individual because of their race is illegal. Michelle explains that there is currently mass incarceration among black men in the United States. The use, possession or sale of drugs is illegal, but it has been systematically created that the laws make it impossible. He claims that the criminal justice system uses the war on drugs as a way to discriminate and suppress the black man. The labeling perspective comes into play with Michelle's statement because African American men have been labeled as the race linked to deviant acts. Because black men are hooked on the deviant act of drugs, the criminal justice system has created laws that state that there is a mandatory minimum of time to be served for the smallest amount of drugs. Once he serves his sentence in a correctional prison... middle of paper... interviewees explained how much he loved one of the drug dealers who introduced him to the hustle. She always provided him with money and goods until he felt he was old enough to earn money and become a drug dealer himself. The film explains how children who grow up in these areas make rational choices because in their eyes selling and consuming is a norm and an option for survival. “Do what you have to do” according to Shanequa. Unfortunately this has become a vicious cycle because the war on drugs is so severe that it has become a slavery or caste system that has taken much of the black race and incarcerated them for drug crimes for as long as murder crimes. This system is dehumanizing and should be examined and revoked. Every race uses and sells drugs, it is unfair to use drug laws only to control the black race incarcerated for petty crimes.