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Alexander writes: "It has been an astonishing decade. Everything and nothing has changed."

Protesters in Baltimore in the aftermath of Freddie Gray's death in 2015. Mr. Gray suffered a fatal spinal cord injury while in police custody. (photo: Yunghi Kim/Contact Press Image)
Protesters in Baltimore in the aftermath of Freddie Gray's death in 2015. Mr. Gray suffered a fatal spinal cord injury while in police custody. (photo: Yunghi Kim/Contact Press Image)


Injustice on Repeat

By Michelle Alexander, The New York Times

19 January 20


From mass incarceration to mass deportation, our nation remains in deep denial.

en years have passed since my book, β€œThe New Jim Crow,” was published. I wrote it to challenge our nation to reckon with the recurring cycles of racial reform, retrenchment and rebirth of caste-like systems that have defined our racial history since slavery. It has been an astonishing decade. Everything and nothing has changed.

When I was researching and writing the book, Barack Obama had not yet been elected president of the United States. I was in disbelief that our country would actually elect a black man to be the leader of the so-called free world. As the election approached, I felt an odd sense of hope and dread. I hoped against all reason that we would actually do it. But I also knew that, if we did, there would be a price to pay.

Everything I knew through experience and study told me that we as a nation did not fully understand the nature of the moment we were in. We had recently birthed another caste system β€” a system of mass incarceration β€” that locked millions of poor people and people of color in literal and virtual cages.

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