The New Jim Crow? Not Even Close

amreicanthinker.com ^ | 5/17/2019 | Alexander Riley

[rktman]

The dominant narrative on the far left these days is that American society is not just racist in the old conventional way; it's "structurally racist." Doesn't that sound dreadfully, awfully serious?

But what does it actually mean?

Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow is one of the left's sacred books on this concept. In Alexander's vision, American society is a seamless system of structural racism, perfectly and malignly organized to accomplish its goal: the subjugation of black people. Alexander claims that this vast "caste system" dooms blacks to lives of misery and oppression. Some might escape, by accident or luck, but the purview of the system is universal in theory. The central arm of this "caste system" is the war on drugs and its imprisonment of vast numbers of nonviolent black drug offenders for inordinately long periods of time. Through this mechanism, black lives are irreparably destroyed, and black America is kept locked in second-class status.

But what is the argument, and what are the facts behind the claim? That is, what is the evidence of this monstrous structural racism?

[rktman]

Sort of along the lines of: Caucasions exist thus proving racism. Or something.

[17th Miss Regt]

Caucasians exist thus proving racism

An excellent, concise statement of the argument! Who could argue against that?

[hanamizu]

“The central arm of this “caste system” is the war on drugs and its imprisonment of vast numbers of nonviolent black drug offenders for inordinately long periods of time.”

---

Hmm, I’m old enough to remember a time before ‘the war on drugs’ and blacks still tended to occupy the lower rungs of society’s ladder—even outside of the south. All of that being said, if one has black skin, the USA is pretty much the best place on earth to live—certainly better than ‘mother Africa’.

[Altura Ct.]

I breath therefore I am....racist.

According to the left blacks must be really pathetic.

[rktman]

Lemming March music in 3, 2,

[broken_clock]

[JimRed]

...if one has black skin, the USA is pretty much the best place on earth to live—certainly better than ‘mother Africa’.

After his fight in Zaire Muhammad Ali said “Thank God my granddaddy got on that boat.”

[alloysteel]

The soft racism of low expectations...

Almost always, blacks are pictured as being “slow” or unsophisticated” in the ways of civilized people.

Civilization is, at best, only a very thin veneer laid over an otherwise unruly and recalcitrant bunch of savages, regardless of race or national origin. This veneer can peel off quickly in the heat of a moment, and some pretty primeval emotions can come pouring out.

Most people of African origin are better than that. When they are allowed to be.