1. Michelle Alexander argues that the main reason why so many people are sent to jail today is rooted in the belief that increased drug use in black and brown areas was the result of their high incarceration rates. She believes that this view is wrong due to the fact that the War on Drugs was launched in 1982 by Ronald Reagan and his administration — 3 whole years before crack cocaine began to spread in poor black neigborhoods. She argued that the war on drugs began during an era when drug use was facing a decline. The CIA later came out in 1988 that “guerrilleare armies it actively supported in Nicaragua were smuggling illegal drugs into the U.S — drugs that were making their way onto the streets of inner city black neighborhoods — The CIA also admitted that in the midst of the war on drugs it blocked law enforcement efforts to investigate illegal drug networks that were helping fund its covert war in Nicaragua.”’
  2. Racial disparities in incarceration rates cannot be explained solely by drug crime rates because studies reveal that people of all races use and sell drugs at similar rates. To back up this claim Michelle Alexander states “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.”
  3. The phrase “the American penal system has emerged as a system of social control unparalleled in world history” suggests to me that the U.S. penal system has become an unjust  mechanism for managing and controlling a significant portion of the population. The scale of incarceration, particularly among minority communities, indicates that this penal system functions not only as a means of punishment but also as a tool to regulate and maintain social order. “Governments decide how much punishment they want, and these decisions are in no simple way related to crime rates”.

4 thoughts on “Mimi Shaw — Discussion 2.1”

  1. Michelle Alexander says that the reason so many people are in jail today isn’t what most people think. A lot of people believe it’s because of crime or drug problems, but she explains that’s not true. She points out that the War on Drugs actually started before crack was even a big issue. That shows it wasn’t really about protecting people from drugs, it was more about using the law to control certain communities. The system mostly targets poor Black neighborhoods, even though people of all races use and sell drugs about the same.
    She also says that you can’t blame the high number of Black and Brown people in prison on drug crime, because studies show that white people do drugs just as much, sometimes even more, especially white teens. But white people usually do it behind closed doors, while Black and Brown people get policed more and arrested more often. So it’s not really about who’s doing the crime, but who’s being watched and punished.
    When Alexander says the prison system is a kind of social control, she means it’s used to keep certain people down, especially Black people. Even after someone does their time, they’re blocked from jobs, housing, voting, and more. It’s like the system found a new way to keep people stuck and treated unfairly, just like during slavery and segregation, but now it’s through mass incarceration.

  2. 1.Alexander says its deeply wrong because it locks them into a caste system forever just like the Jim Crow laws. That even some people who have family that have felonies on their record are impacted even if they don’t have any crime record. As the Jim crows were being thrown away the government could only laugh nervously about incarcerating black and brown due to their disparity. They are covering up and taking something that is seen as bad in society because the government/ conservatives don’t feel in control.
    2. Racial disparites cannot be explained by drug rate crimes because all people of color were doing the same amount of drugs because it was more accessible.
    3. I understand this phrase as while other countries were declining in incarceration United States went 4 times higher because of different motivations to control the minority.

  3. Mimi, I really appreciate how you highlighted the way Southern politicians used “law and order” language to mask the true intentions of segregationist policies. It’s powerful how this tactic helped normalize racism without overtly naming it, which makes it harder to confront. Your connection to modern-day voter suppression shows the lasting impact of these strategies, and it reminds me how important it is to remain vigilant about seemingly neutral policies that can perpetuate inequality.

    I also liked your reference to Michelle Alexander’s work her analysis of how voter suppression disproportionately affects communities of color is crucial to understanding contemporary politics. It shows that even though explicit racism might be less acceptable publicly, systemic barriers still maintain racial disparities. Your post made me think about how the Southern Strategy’s legacy isn’t just historical but very much alive in how political power is contested today.

  4. Hi Mark, thank you for your response. I enjoyed Michelle Alexanders analysis during this module. It really sheds light on how these tactics (such as the southern strategy) keep marginalized communities from fully participating in democracy.

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