However, eventually the Populists came to believe that working alongside black people would forever inhibit their chances of gaining political power, and abandoned their racial solidarity.
Criticism of mass incarceration gained momentum in the 1990s. 0000007753 00000 n 0000013468 00000 n
Alexander explores the history of “racialized social control” (20) in the United States. Although a few lone voices suggested that crack was being used as a “scapegoat” for all of society’s problems, overall the anti-drug legislation of the 1980s met little opposition as it was being passed. 0000002428 00000 n
0000008680 00000 n The Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s was the final blow to institutionalized racism, and the ascent of Barack Obama, a black man, to the highest political office in the United States is proof that we now live in a "colorblind" society. 0000031195 00000 n
Meanwhile, increasing segregation paved the way for Jim Crow to take effect. After reading each excerpt from “The Rebirth of Caste,” use the graph on page 2 to plot and sequence the topics and
0000020746 00000 n Radicalism focused its critique on the corporations and wealthy elite who deliberately created a wedge between working-class white and black people, and was an appealing ideology to many African Americans. Mandatory minimum sentences of five years became common even for first-time offenders. 0000013127 00000 n Teachers and parents! 0000006473 00000 n 0000011233 00000 n 0000043672 00000 n Although Jim Crow uniquely fit the demands of its era, it was not a unique system. Arguably, great progress has been made in achieving a fairer society, yet Alexander argues that this story largely misrepresents the conditions of poor and working class blacks today. While in some ways this was achieved through haphazard means (such as spontaneous acts of racist violence), it was also systematically instituted through the prison system. In America, it emerged as a way of rationalizing slavery. 0000027253 00000 n 0000043259 00000 n
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And although the positive impact of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 was “undeniable,” it was clear that without similar pushes for economic justice, most black people would remain trapped in the cycle of poverty. It might seem strange that Alexander describes the rise of Jim Crow before immediately jumping to its demise over the course of the civil rights movement in the mid-20th century.
The abolition of slavery is often treated as a triumphant moment in American history, during which the country finally reached a turning point in its moral conscience and resolved to end the horrors of slavery forever.
0000011737 00000 n *M֞)��1��$>G�$�'�> ��$�)��H�}L$1K��9� �6� �[�-�Nx�|>0��as>2��a7s�KKA��N@��A���A���A�1 m�~�Auw�V����=O����̡4U�O� "The superlative nature of individual black achievement today in formally white domains is a good indicator that the old Jim Crow is dead, but does not necessarily mean the end of racial caste" (Page 21). Instead of aiding vulnerable communities that had already been devastated by the impact of crack by providing legal job opportunities and addiction treatment, the government rubbed salt in the existing wound by adding police brutality and mass incarceration to communities that were already in chaos. On the other hand, people tend to be highly resistant to the idea that a racial caste system exists in the present era, especially considering the success of famous African Americans such as, Here Alexander contradicts several key myths about American history.
h�bb2d`b``Ń3� ���i � I� endstream endobj 347 0 obj <>/Metadata 54 0 R/Names 348 0 R/Pages 53 0 R/StructTreeRoot 56 0 R/Type/Catalog/ViewerPreferences<>>> endobj 348 0 obj <> endobj 349 0 obj <>/ExtGState<>/Font<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text]/XObject<>>>/Rotate 0/StructParents 6/TrimBox[0.0 0.0 612.0 792.0]/Type/Page>> endobj 350 0 obj [351 0 R] endobj 351 0 obj <>/Border[0 0 0]/H/N/Rect[58.429 677.6 266.429 657.4]/Subtype/Link/Type/Annot>> endobj 352 0 obj <>stream H�\��n�0��~ In this passage, Alexander shows that racism is not only built into the American legal system as it currently exists, but is a key component of the founding document of the laws of the nation: the Constitution. Ultimately, conservatives won the day and instituted a new, stable, “permanent” policy of segregation and racial control: Jim Crow. /�E�O̽����I+e1?�t���"5���ۏ�Oԑ �Y�>>.�f�ݍ�b�_a��~��a샿L��y{�a4Ei��[�����l��y�,�����k�����%��÷~:�G����x�6�G�������~\ln����������m��=���>,����_��m��L�f������|hǓ7u���o�j����]�m�c��So�8�E�nL]�i����g�j6� ���yU$�C�\���-����Ԏ��nE^�y�ù���5+hV��P_9�W� 0000021087 00000 n 0000044726 00000 n
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof."
0000004936 00000 n Rather than being an unfortunate by-product of American history, racism is at the heart of the history and culture of the country.
Without the substantial change advocated by Martin Luther King and other activists, the end of Jim Crow simply paved the way for a new system to take its place. In addition, they instituted a “racial bribe,” giving advantages to poor whites in order to dissuade them from forging alliances with African-American slaves. Struggling with distance learning? As African Americans obtained political power and began the long march to- ward greater social and economic equality, whites reacted with panic and outrage.
(including. Southern whites were thus able to reestablish a system of control that placed them at the top of the racial caste hierarchy.
0000002267 00000 n The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of.
White supremacy was by this time “a kind of religion,” allowing whites to claim that all people in America were equal while simultaneously supporting racial inequality and violence.
Native Americans also became racialized as a way for European settlers to rationalize invading their territories.
Some states even established conflict labor farms. Any opponent of mass incarceration would find themselves (supposedly) supporting drugs and crime—a death sentence for any political career. Many people argue that the relative lack of explicitly racist rhetoric in the present is an indication that racism is no longer a powerful force in society. However, in this passage Alexander shows that this lack of explicit racism in fact, The late 1960s and 70s were defined by two theories of race relations. However, this decision highlights the fact that—rather than being a unique system of racialized social control—Jim Crow was in fact only one loop in the cycle of racist control systems that began with slavery. 0000013797 00000 n In Chapter One, Alexander... (read more from the Chapter 1: The Rebirth of Caste Summary). Although the era immediately following Reconstruction was defined by chaos and confusion, in hindsight it is clear that Southern whites were doing everything they could to institute a new system of racial hierarchy that would keep African Americans too impoverished and terrorized to access power and advantages within society. 0000010254 00000 n As this passage shows, even moments of apparent progress laid the groundwork for later racial discrimination and terror. One of the biggest debates among scholars of American history is over whether or not there has been a substantial amount of progress in racial equality over time (even though all agree there is still a long way to go). 0000020507 00000 n
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The racial system has evolved with new rules but the same endgame. By the time of the Emancipation Proclamation, the racial caste system created by slavery was so deeply embedded within American society that even the end of slavery could not undo it.
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“Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. A range of factors including backlash to civil rights legislation, white fears about black activism and culture, economic inequality, segregation, and a rightward, “tough on crime” turn in the Republican party all conspired to create an environment in which mass incarceration seems practically destined to have arisen.
Any opponent of mass incarceration would find themselves (supposedly) supporting drugs and crime—a death sentence for any political career. 0000001596 00000 n h�b``�```����� �� �� @1v�+:�tnϲn` �O��%\8x��(#`������Ą{�k�V�ؠ�q"�����ݦ���
THE NEW JIM CROW by Michelle Alexander CHAPTER 1 The Rebirth of Caste The Birth of Jim Crow The backlash against the gains of African Americans in the Reconstruction Era was swift and severe. Mass incarceration is often framed as an inevitable—if regrettable—phenomenon that was nonetheless the only responsible reaction to the crack epidemic. 0000003003 00000 n Alexander outlines three theories of American race relations that deviated from the “extreme racism” of white Southerners who longed for the age of slavery: liberalism, conservatism, and radicalism. 0 f{�� endstream endobj 353 0 obj <> endobj 354 0 obj <>stream As Alexander demonstrates, however, part of the masterfulness of the New Jim Crow was the skill with which mass incarceration was presented as a bipartisan, uncontroversial, common sense initiative. 0000005134 00000 n
0000038101 00000 n However, Alexander’s discussion of race in terms of caste helps illuminate the extent to which “race” is not simply a fact but rather a historical, flexible, and ever-changing concept. The three theories of race relations outlined in this passage highlight the extent to which racism defined Southern politics. ���?��m������#S*��nH��\z1b����qy ,QRJ�
Black people were used as a source of cheap labor, and were placed at the bottom of the racial caste system. 0000020206 00000 n
0000003979 00000 n 0000045063 00000 n [i '�6�(52�G�1ʼn)L�9�⨮ء�$"j�ְ�~�2��Z�σ9mJ��Wȡ�� c�2��@�Ć��K�43�p(��WG�-}��ܭ�JH5hڡ�"\W5�~Y)�H4-�Ȝ�1)j�v� ��~� endstream endobj 409 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/Index[56 290]/Length 31/Size 346/Type/XRef/W[1 1 1]>>stream In this passage, Alexander shows that even though crack represented a very real problem, mass incarceration was far from the only possible response. As Alexander demonstrates, however, part of the masterfulness of the New Jim Crow was the skill with which mass incarceration was presented as a bipartisan, uncontroversial, common sense initiative. 0000003610 00000 n During the early colonial period of the 17th century, indentured servitude was the dominant form of labor. Conservatives argued that poverty was caused by (black) culture, which supposedly led people into cycles of unemployment, drug use, and crime; liberals maintained faith that state social programs such as the War on Poverty could successfully solve racial inequality.