Author: More Black males in prison today than there were enslaved in 1850.

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Michelle Alexander: More Black Men Are In Prison Today Than Were Enslaved In 1850

More black men are behind bars or under the watch of the criminal justice system than there were enslaved in 1850, according to the author of a book about racial discrimination and criminal justice.

Ohio State University law professor and civil rights activist Michelle Alexander highlighted the troubling statistic while speaking in front of an audience at the Pasadena Branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, Elev8 reports.

Alexander, the author of "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," reportedly claimed there are more African American men in prison and jail, or on probation and parole, than were slaves before the start of the Civil War.

More than 846,000 black men were incarcerated in 2008, according to U.S. Bureau of Justice estimates reported by NewsOne. African Americans make up 13.6 percent of the U.S. population according to census data, but black men reportedly make up 40.2 percent of all prison inmates.

The criminal justice system is the newest in a long line of societal structures that have disenfranchised people of color, Alexander argues in her book, according to ColorLines.

In an excerpt from her book published on her website, Alexander writes that despite today's belief in "colorblindness," our criminal justice system effectively bars African American men from citizenship, treating them as a separate caste:

Denying African Americans citizenship was deemed essential to the formation of the original union. Hundreds of years later, America is still not an egalitarian democracy. The arguments and rationalizations that have been trotted out in support of racial exclusion and discrimination in its various forms have changed and evolved, but the outcome has remained largely the same.

More African American men were disenfranchised due to felony convictions in 2004 than in 1870, "the year the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified prohibiting laws that explicitly deny the right to vote on the basis of race," she wrote in a Huffington Post blog published last year.

Although crime rates have dipped in recent years, the number of African American men who are incarcerated has surged, mainly due to a single law enforcement policy, Alexander contends.

"Most of that increase is due to the War on Drugs, a war waged almost exclusively in poor communities of color," she said in the Pasadena lecture, according to LA Progressive.

That crime-fighting measure "is a big part of the reason that a black child born today is less likely to be raised by both parents than a black child born during slavery," she wrote in a 2010 Huffington Post blog.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...lack-men-in-prison-slaves-1850_n_1007368.html
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No this is something we should care about. I've read about half of Mass incarceration and its...troubling...I suggest anyone...everyone read it.

That being said, the war on drugs needs to be ended immediately, it disproportionally arrests Negroes. This ought be the next big social issue. Stop arresting my brothers, my fathers, my sons! The check for freedom STILL says insufficient funds.

She's brilliant.
 
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Its a bit tilted simply based on population growth...

But when you factor in that the black community's pop has sat at 60 mil for quite some time now... It puts it into perspective...

I am SO for going back and fixing my hood... Gotta get some paper first...

Sad day we live in, mayne...

:smh: :smh:

*waits for the usual suspects to say its all in our heads, and there's no system designed to throw brothers in jail*
 
NooEra said:
Dont yall ever get tired of the same discussions over and over ?

Same people saying the same damn thing. Over and over. Every day
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you right...

But I hope you mean the conversation is always on NT.. And not saying its something we just don't need to talk about... Correct?

I always wonder whos bringing this up all the time, doe.

Like... Are the black people constantly throwing it out there... Or other races just have to have a say in the black community.
 
All im saying is that NT's favorite topic is race. Why? Every topic gets turned into a race thread and everytime i come in General the hottest topic is always racially motivated. Then people get to pointing fingers and asking other people what color their skin is. It shouldnt matter .
 
i like that race is talked about on here because its a topic alot of people dont want to talk about in person when they have to stand by the **** they say

it gives you a glimpse into the mindsets of others
 
NooEra said:
All im saying is that NT's favorite topic is race. Why? Every topic gets turned into a race thread and everytime i come in General the hottest topic is always racially motivated. Then people get to pointing fingers and asking other people what color their skin is. It shouldnt matter .
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This topic is about Race, it wasnt something unrelated that got turned into about Race. This topic goes beyond Race, as much as you want to defer the disenfranchisement of one Race and the unfairness to the judicial system of targeting a particular group is bigger than what you fail to believe. Looking at the bigger picture, this topic has ramifications on our economy, not just now, but decades from now.
 
I've read Michelle Alexander book and it's a good book and that's all I have to have on this topic. It's not worth looking into it too deeply on NT.
 
CashBanks said:
i like that race is talked about on here because its a topic alot of people dont want to talk about in person when they have to stand by the **** they say

it gives you a glimpse into the mindsets of others
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Race is a topic not a lot of people want to talk about? Lol what?! **** is everywhere, though. All over the news.
In the papers. Social media. Race. Religion. Politics.

And nah I liked NT better when it was roast threads. Threads about showing up to a scammers house. Threads about Harlem Shake competitions.

Yall can have your race threads . I see and interact with people of all creeds and colors every day and i have my entire life.
Its not that fascinating to me.

/rant
 
CashBanks said:
i like that race is talked about on here because its a topic alot of people dont want to talk about in person when they have to stand by the **** they say

it gives you a glimpse into the mindsets of others
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Exactly, most ppl would NEVER say these things in public but they feel comfortable enough behind that keyboard to say how they really feel. Love seeing those true colors come out
 
Another race thread? Can y'all just make a race section and keep it all there? No disrespect to the situation but literally every other thread is a race thread
 
:lol:

Y'all make it seem like every black dude in jail is in there for something they didn't do. People of all races get charged with something they didn't do. I guarantee you out of all the black people in jail maybe like 20% of those didn't do anything.
 
BLASTERCOMBO said:
Another race thread? Can y'all just make a race section and keep it all there? No disrespect to the situation but literally every other thread is a race thread
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Word.

It would be the same 10-15 posters calling each other racists and telling each other that they "just dont understand"

Then big long *** essays containing phrases and ideas that have been recycled one million times over on this board.
 
BLASTERCOMBO said:
Another race thread? Can y'all just make a race section and keep it all there? No disrespect to the situation but literally every other thread is a race thread
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You acting like racism doesn't exist. Racism and discrimination is still rampant in the world we live in. To stop talking about it ain't gonna make it go away.
 
FlyNY said:
You acting like racism doesn't exist. Racism and discrimination is still rampant in the world we live in. To stop talking about it ain't gonna make it go away.
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Who said stop? I said consolidate it into one place instead of having it everywhere. One and the other 7-8 people can go ham there
 
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