Question 1. M. Alexander claims that the main explanation of why so many people are sent to jail in the U.S. today is deeply wrong. Explain her argument by referring to the various examples she mentions to backup her point. (see p. 1-2)

Michelle Alexander’s view of understanding why mass incarceration is deeply wrong is simply because of how the Government foreseen a War on Drugs but used the African American population in urban, poor, cities as a pawn in the media to make it believable for legislative, monetary support of the war. Alexander quotes, ” The Reagan Administration hired staff to publicize the emergence of crack cocaine in 1985 as a part of a strategic effort to build public and legislative support.” ( Alexander, 5)

Question 2. Why is it that racial disparities in the rates of incarceration “cannot be explained by rates of drug crimes”?

Racial disparities in the rates of incarceration could never be explained by the rates of drug crimes because the government is responsible for such a disgraceful act of genocide to erase the African American communities in the U.S. There can be an outstanding rate of mass incarceration led by drug crimes but the African American communities did not profoundly begin with the “crack cocaine epidemic.” The CIA admitted that “… in 1998 that guerilla armies it actively supported in Nicaragua were smuggling illegal drugs into the United States – drugs that were making their way onto the streets of inner-city black neighborhoods in the form of crack cocaine.” ( Alexander, 6)

Question 3. How do you understand the phrase: “the American penal system has emerged as a system of social control unparalleled in world history.”?

The American penal system has a way of having population control by using the media to convey stereotypical demographics about racial groups and coinciding these groups to experience the systematic oppression or the American Dream depending on the individuals skin tone.

Q 1: M. Alexander argues how the United States justice system is corrupt and is in desperation for a revival to ensure fairness for the future. She states the drastic increase of people of color’s incarcerations interconnected with a disproportionate amount relegating to second class status; in turn, leading to mass incarceration which is a unfortunate outcome that thrives in racial oppression stemming to slavery.

Q 2: Pertaining to the drug abuse industry’s modernized stats, there has been a vivid spike in reports linked in substantial connections between illegal drug use and non-drug related criminal activity. While this connection has statistically decreased when different factors including socio-economic status, class, age, sex, and ethnicity are regulated, it’s quite clear that this connection between incarceration rates with racial disparities isn’t focusing on drug crime rates. All factors must be taken into account with all focal points.

Q 3: To me, these words shine a light to elaborate on the justice system we see today being puppeteered by people with simply opposing beliefs regarding their ideology about race. Take the population of people of color and contemplate how they have been pinned as the poster people for being magnetized to crime; crime is not limited to people of color, but more so a vast variety of hues, shapes, and names that are a melting pot of diversity.

1. We grew up learning that you go to jail as a punishment you deserve for something you did.  If you end up in jail it is a clear consequence of your actions and that consequence would be equitable to those actions you made.  When we think about the jail system we are thought to think that every one that is there is a criminal and they are paying back for the criminal activities.  We also learned for so long that we were on a crucial war against the evil of drugs, you use, you sell, you go to jail.  Interestingly Michael Alexander puts in perspective a different reason.  As a result of the drug war “in less than thirty years, the U.S penal population exploded from around 300,000 to more than 2 million, with convictions accounting for the majority of the increase”. Making the U.S the country with a higher rate of incarceration in the world. The reason for this is not a relationship between crime and penalty as we often think, rather a relationship of racial disparity, a result of policies that look to put black and brown people back to their places. Alexander states that “there is no truth to the notion that the War on Drugs was launched in response to crack cocaine, rather when the drug war was announced by President Regan, the crack was not a crisis or the main issue in poor black and brown communities”.  The issue started right after, so rather than stop or minimize the drug issue it created it and spread it.  Even deeper than this or to actually speak to how deep White Supremacy is into this, Alexander explains how the War on Drug campaign just makes sense with the theories and generational speculation in poor black communities that the War on Drugs was part of a genocidal plan by the government.  To this, she speaks about how the CIA knew drugs was been smuggled into the country and into primary black communities and they allowed that to happen. 
2.  The racial disparities in the rates of incarceration cannot be explained by rates of drug crimes, because first: “governments use punishment primarily as a tool of social control, and thus the extent or severity of the punishment is often unrelated to actual crimes”. Second, Alexander points remarkably well the reality that studies show that people of ALL colors use and sell illegal drugs at similar rates, furthermore, other statistical research suggests that whites, particularly white youth, are more likely to engage in drug crime than people of color. However the reality of the population in jail today does not reflect that reality, in fact, “80 percent of young African American men now have criminal records and are thus subject to legalized discrimination for the rest of their life”, a sentence that will most likely condemn them to live in poverty. 
3. Social control is important for governments like ours.  A government that defines nationalism and patriotism with a white face and terrorism, looting, laziness, and crimes with black and brown faces.  Social control is a big thing for imperialist governments, it is most important for White Supremacy structures.  You cannot oppress, and you definitely cannot make wealth out of the people you oppress if first you cannot control them.  I think social control starts with the dehumanization of the other, followed by the criminalization of their own being, then you deny to that person any possible access to gain power.  With the song of “law and order” President Nixon saw that opportunity to disguise persecution and “social control” of the “loud minority” with all legal power of the government.  Even before that slavery, and even before that genocide of my indigenous ancestors all across the American Continent.  Social control in our context has been used and it is still used with the purpose of maintaining and defending a system of power, wealth and privilege, that can only exist if we people of color, stay in our lane, while dreaming to escape to the north, have a job, a beautiful house and a backyard.

1. Indeed, racial disparities cannot be explained by crime rates because studies show that people of all colors use and sell drugs at astonishing rates. In fact, surveys show that whites, particularly white youth, are more likely to engage in drug crime than people of color, predominantly black and brown people of color. According to conspiracy theories, America seeks to destroy black communities. They carried this out through the CIA who allowed illegal drugs and substances to be brought into the country, which was then associated with black people, making it easy for law enforcement agencies to arrest and send them to jail. In addition, the CIA admitted in 1998 that guerilla armies it actively supported in Nicaragua were smuggling drugs into the United States. Thus, it was proving that the government was aware of this unlawful activity.
2. M Alexander argues that so many are in jail not because of the “war on drugs”, or crimes. She claims that more people are sent to jail because the American judicial system sorts to oppress, suppress, and control minority groups amongst the whites. Black people are more likely to be incarcerated for the same or even smaller crimes committed by white people. Meaning a white person is more likely to walk away committing the same offense a black or person of color commits.
3. The term “American Penal System” is a system put in place to regulate and control crime. They exist for people who commit crimes to be incarcerated, but unfortunately, this system is bias and racially motivated as it goes hard on black and brown people of color. As a result, the corrections centers hold twice the number of black and brown people incarcerated than their white counterparts.

1. M. Alexander claims that the main explanation of why so many people are sent to jail in the U.S. today is deeply wrong. Explain her argument by referring to the various examples she mentions to backup her point. (see p. 1-2)

M. Alexander claims that the main explanation of why so many people are sent to jail in the U.S. today is deeply wrong, due to the reason that the U.S. currently has the incarceration rate in the world, and most of them are colored people, especially Blacks. At the push of the media campaign, people started to form a stereotype that Blacks are related to cracks. Alexander claimed that “the crack crisis might be the U.S. government’s plan to rigged Blacks.”

2. Why is it that racial disparities in the rates of incarceration “cannot be explained by rates of drug crimes”?

The racial disparities in the rates of incarceration can’t be explained by rates of drug crimes, because the government were mainly focused on Blacks or colored people, if Whites committed crime, they would be punished way less than the Blacks. Alexander wrote that “In some states, black men have been admitted to prison on drug charges at rates twenty to fifty times greater than those of white men.”

3. How do you understand the phrase: “the American penal system has emerged as a system of social control unparalleled in world history.”?

I think it’s a satire, American government used its penal system to wipe out races they don’t like, this action is the first-ever compared to other countries.

DB 2.1

1.  Mrs. Alexander addresses racial disparity through this article, and she states that African American people are more likely to be imprisoned in the United States compare to other races. This disparity is related to the 1980s era when the conspiracy theories have been emerged during that period coinciding with the emergence of the War on Drug in the 1982. In fact, she claims that the main explanation of why so many people are sent to jail in the U.S today is wrong because she believes that those people are victim of the conspiracy theory which was intended to plant wrong believes in society about poor African American through media and spread the idea that those people are mostly to commit crimes and contribute in increasing crack cocaine. She emphasizes that the rate of imprisoning had been increasingly occurred during that period and it sustain until today. She explains while the crack cocaine had immerged in the United States, the government’s effort was devoted to convict intentionally people from poor neighborhood who were mostly African American to suppress the drug crime ignoring other races as she states, “The Reagan administration hired staff to publicize the emergence of crack cocaine in 1985 as part of a strategic effort to build public and legislative support for the war. The media campaign was an extraordinary success”. Her position reveals the unfair situation in which African American were imposed to be proving that many people are sent to jail because of the conspiracy and not because they indeed commit crimes which confirms racial disparity.

2. Racial disparity in the rates of incarceration “cannot be explained by rates of drug crimes. it states in the article’ “Studies show that people of all colors use and sell illegal drugs at remarkably similar rates”. In this case we cannot focus on one race to determine the rates of incarceration while people of many races are involved in increasing the drug crimes rates. Therefore, people from different races are exposed to be in jail which reveals the inability to explain racial disparity of incarceration by drug’s crime rates. Moreover, the article mentions the absence of the correlation between crime and punishment and sociologist found that government uses the punishment as social control regardless on the rates of crimes.

3. “The American penal system has emerged as a system of social control unparalleled in word history” it is understandable from this statement that the American penal system is different compared to the worldwide systems because and as I mentioned above that Mrs. Alexander explained that the punishment which the government adopt as a social control is not related to the rate of crimes committed. In my opinion it is strange to find this lack of correlation between crime and punishment because this system is more likely to encourage crime rather than decreases the rates of crime because if people who are involved in increasing crimes will not be receive the penalty they deserve, they will continue doing crimes.

1. M. Alexander claims that the main explanation of why so many people are sent to jail in the U.S. today is deeply wrong. Explain her argument by referring to the various examples she mentions to back up her point. (see p. 1-2)

M. Alexander claims that the main reason for so many people being sent to jail in the U.S is deeply wrong because people of color were targeted for being criminals that were addicts. Minorities living in poor inner city neighborhoods became victims during the crack era opposed to being the other way around; considering how the media and white people perceived them. The despairing lives of people that emerged from crack cocaine was publicized, which was later on enacted by minorities to severe jail time. During the mid 1980’s, there wasn’t necessarily any help for minorities, however they would consider the “issue” due to pre assumptions and negative stereotypes which furthered the notion to push the actual War on drugs. However, the issue was never the people, thus to the drugs being put into their communities; this was obviously an agenda forming to still have control over black people.

2. Why is it that racial disparities in the rates of incarceration “cannot be explained by rates of drug crimes”?

M. Alexander claims in her statement racial disparities in the rates of incarceration “cannot be explained by rates of drug crimes” since according to her “These stark racial disparities cannot be explained by rates of drug crime”. Studies show that people of all colors use and sell illegal drugs at remarkably similar rates.10 If there are significant differences in the surveys to be found, they frequently suggest that whites, particularly white youth, are more likely to engage in drug crime than people of color.” Which may not be a first considered assumption being that the U.S prison/jail systems are overpopulated with minority offenders.

Furthermore, M. Alexander also claims, “Sociologists have frequently observed that governments use punishment primarily as a tool of social control, and thus the extent or severity of punishment is often unrelated to actual crime patterns.” Also, to come to terms knowing that the drug crime was declining, not rising, when a drug war was declared, emphasizing that there was more than just “experimental planting”  going on amongst the poor inner city communities. There was obviously a hidden agenda. 

3. How do you understand the phrase: “the American penal system has emerged as a system of social control unparalleled in world history.”?

In M. Alexander writings, she was conveying the realism of the “new” founding Jim Crow. The impact from the war on drugs has been shocking for years to come afterwards. The phrase “The American penal system has emerged as a system of social control unparalleled in world history” means, the system that was emplaced is being used to control/enforcement against those who commit crimes that do not align with the regulations formulated in America. More so, those who engaged in these behaviors 

will still go through problematic notions afterwards being that the American penal system doesn’t return those rights you had before you were arrested. People of color make up the most population in the prison system, which they have been targeted from the very beginning. If most of these people come from a poor environment to then enter a social control system, to come home and be restricted to housing, voting, along with much more, is a damaging process to a human being. The initial agenda isn’t resolution, instead it’s an unnecessary cycle that will lead into further destruction because of opportunity limitation. 

1. M. Alexander argues that the mainstream American view of why there are so many people in prison is because there’s a lot of crime being committed. However, it is not true. Unless they count drug possession to be a crime, most people go to prison because of the war on drugs laws, a lot of which are penalized with prison time drug possession. In fact, crime has decreased in America historically at least over the last 20 years and before.  Also the more minorities get arrested and sentenced the easier to control them in many aspects. “Sociologists have frequently observed that governments use punishment primarily as a tool of social control.” After the minorities have a crime record , they will be discriminated against legally for the rest of their lives. Also they will be permanently locked up in mainstream society. Therefore, the racist system can continue to exist. 

2. I think the main point is that all types of Americans use drugs, no matter if they are white, black, latino or other ethnicity. Any American from any social class or group or any other person can be said to be a potential drug addict. According to M. Alexander, “ Studies show that people of all colors use and sell illegal drugs at remarkably similar rates.” Obviously, minority people of color are overrepresented in prisons, this is not just because more people of color use drugs. That’s why people of color are potentially users of drugs and that’s simply not true.  Also people are led to believe the saying of the criminal justice system specifically related to the war on drugs is racist. People have realized that all colors use and sell illegal drugs at similar rates, but why are the minorities arrested and sentenced more than whites? Even the cost of black or brown is 20 to 50 times greater than whites in some states, it simply demonstrates racial discrimation in the system. 

3. Alexander’s is showing the point that the criminal justice system is a place where society is controlled. In other words, my argument to the phrase is that the government uses the penal system to control the minority people of color permanently locked out of mainstream society. As soon as they have criminal records, the result waiting for them is they will be legalized discrimination for the rest of their lives. The government can deprive their public benefits, also they will be discriminated against in employment, housing, and education, they are even excluded from voting and jury service rights. That’s the genius of the social control system and it has become the tool in the history of American racial inequality.

1. M. Alexander claims that the main explanation of why so many people are sent to jail in the U.S. is deeply wrong. Explain her argument by referring to the various example she mentions to back up here point. 

Michelle Alexander main explanation of why so many people are sent to jail in the U.S. today is based on the justice system to label people of color as criminals. She also stated that they are subject to legal discrimination in employment, housing, education, public benefits, and jury service.

2. Why is it that racial disparities in the rates of incarceration “cannot be explained by rates of drug crimes”?

Michelle Alexander in her writings pointed to the impact of the drug war as dumbfounding stating that “In less than thirty years, the U.S. penal population exploded from around 300,000 to more than 2 million, with drug convictions accounting for the majority of the increase. The United States now has the highest incarceration rate in the world, dwarfing the rates in highly repressive rates of nearly every developed country, even surpassing those in highly repressive regimes like Russia, China, and Iran.  In Germany, 93 people are in prison for every 100,000 adults and children.  In the United States, the rate is roughly eight times that or 750 per 100,000.8” (p 6)

She went on to say that, “The racial dimension of mass incarceration is its most striking feature.  No other country in the world imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities.  The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid.” (p 6-7).

I believe given the statistical information obtain through Michelle Alexander’s research, it is clear at least in my own perception why racial disparities in the rate of incarceration cannot be explained by rates of drug crimes.

3. How do you understand the phrase: “the American penal system has emerged as a system of social control unparalleled in world history”?

I think Alexander may have been alerting her audience to the fact that this is the New Jim Crow noting that the notion of “colorblindness” serves only as a covering to the true reality of a new racial eminence system. Alexander showed in her writings as recent as mid-1970 many were prisons would soon be obsolete becoming soothing of the past. In 1972 less than 350,00 people were imprisoned today a significant increase of a million.  Research shown that one in three young African American men will spend time in jail. Many cities across the US have seen more than half its African American men imprison, on parole or probation.