Kylia McCoy

29 October 2017
Social Problems 1020-807
Professor Zendina Mostert

Book Report: The New Jim Crow

Theme/Topic: This book covers a variety of social issues, all that connect with the Criminal
Justice system. The book focuses on the inequalities in the criminal justice system for African
Americans. It also addresses the racial profiling, drug use, poverty, etc. in less detail.

Summary: Alexander main focus for this book is the disproportionate targets in the Criminal
Justice System. This includes laws, as well as people, who render people of color as second rate,
less important or useless. This includes the way that black and brown men are targeted and forced
into a hopeless box of inequalities and legal discrimination. This book follows through her
realization of just how huge this issue is, having previously worked for the ACLU, she knew
there was inequalities. But like most americans, especially those of a higher status, she
unconsciously ignored the signs and issues. This book, in part, focuses on the inequalities within
the War on Drugs. This includes everything from the rate of use to incarceration, she speaks
about how the media has played into this racism, by blasting stories of ghetto kids dying or being
arrested with drugs. Then later, when white or privileged kids die or are caught they are seen as
troubled youth and the reason why we need drug awareness, intervention and so forth. She also
goes into detail about the nature of laws broken, one instance is the difference between crack and
powder cocaine.

Evaluation/Assessment: Alexander used an incredibly large set of sources, which makes it far
more believable and credible to me. Though much of the information is her own, stories or things
shes seen in california, which causes me to wonder about the gravity of the situations in other
areas of the U.S. Since she uses to many sources from a large variety of studies, organizations and
view points, it shows the reliability to the book.

Facts:
One study indicates that as late as 1970, more than 70% of all black working in
metropolitan areas held blue-collar jobs. Yet by 1987 industrial employment of black
men plummeted to 28%
One in eight black men in their twenties are locked up on any given day.
The number of drug offenders in state prisons has increased 13x since 1980
5.3 million americans are denied their right to vote.
45% of non-whites are frisked when pulled over, compared to 29% of whites, even
though whites are 70% more likely to carry weapons.
 Quotes
Today a criminal freed from prison has scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect,
than a freed slave or black person living free in Mississippi at the height of Jim Crow.
When black youth find it difficult or impossible to live up to these standards or when
they fail, stumble, and make mistakes, as all humans do - shame and blame is heaped
upon them.
It is fair to say we have witnessed an evolution in the United States from a racial caste
system based entirely on exploitation (slavery), to one based largely on subordination
(Jim Crow), to one defined by marginalization (Mass incarceration).
The nature of the criminal justice system has changed. It is no longer primarily
concerned with the prevention and punishment of crime, but rather with the management
and control of the dispossessed.
African Americans are not significantly more likely to use or sell prohibited drugs than
whites, but they are made criminals at drastically higher rates for precisely the same
conduct.

History
1619: first african slaves brought to the U.S. (Virgina) to aid in the production of
Tobacco
Dec. 1865: Slavery is abolished
1896: Separate but Equal laws
1865-1877: Reconstruction era
1877-1950s: Jim Crows laws gain favor
1934-1968: FHA Insurances utilize Redlining segregation
1954-1968: Civil rights Movement.
1954: Brown v Board of Education
Aug. 1955: Emmett Till case & Death
Aug 1965: Voting Rights Act of 1965
1967: Loving v Virginia
1971-Current: The War on Drugs

Social Class: Social Class is shown throughout the book in the form of laws, laws, policies, and
regulations. This is shown by the laws with crack and powder cocaine, one being used primarily
by African Americans and also being far far more severely punished. This is also shown by police
being trained to look in ghetto and black neighborhoods for criminals, even though both people of
color and whites use drugs at the same rate.

Stigma: Individual stigmas is a large part of this book, in the form of society having
predetermined ideas on people because of their race, ethnicity, their home town, criminal record
and so forth. For one, a 17 year old from the ghetto might be seen as bad, a criminal or a gang
member if they are caught with marijuana, whereas the same child in the nice side of town might
be seen as simply acting out, bored, experimenting, etc. The same can be said in reference to a
black youth and a white youth.
 Intersectionality: The main discussion in this book is on race, it dives into the issues in the
criminal justice system. This being that there are policies which are dramatically weighted against
people of color. For instance, crack and powder cocaine, which are arguably similar in strength,
damage done and percentage of people using. The only main difference is that Crack is cheaper to
produce, more commonly produced and sold in African American communities. Yet possession
or intent to sell crack cocaine has had a mandatory minimum sentencing of five years, whereas
powder cocaine has had little to no mandatory minimum in most states. One of the largest
mandatory minimums is one month in jail and a fine. Another thing to note, is the importance of
socioeconomic status in this book. Children, even African-American children, who grow up in
wealthy neighborhoods are more likely to be overlooked by police for the same crimes. An
example of this in The New jim crow is the way in which police will target crime related or
high crime neighborhoods to try and get their monthly quota. Although it is important to note
that race is not triumphed by SES, black children are expected to prove their worth far more than
white children of a similar SES. Many people will see the white son of a doctor as must being a
very good kid since he was raised in such an environment whereas the black son of a doctor may
be seen as a blank slate who must prove he is just as good since a parents SES/job is unrelated to
the quality of a child. Another very important element in this book is criminal record, U.S.
citizens are being refused the right to vote for being in prison or for having a felony conviction.
Having a criminal record is also giving companies, employers and home owners a right to
discriminate against these people. Non-violent criminals are barred from jobs, apartments and so
forth simply for having that criminal record. This also ties into racial inequalities since there is an
alarming rate of people of color being imprisoned compared to the rate of use. For example, black
youth are incredibly likely to be in prison at one point, compared to white youth who break the
laws at the same rate.

Reflection: This book brought up many questions about this topic, since this book focused mostly
on the rate of black men, I became curious about how Black women are portrayed in the media, in
society and so forth. I also wondered about other laws and regulations that were not mentioned in
this book or detailed. This source was very helpful to me, as it was detailed and statistical enough
to be helpful in a variety of ways but also still introductory enough to be understandable by the
average person. Before reading this book, I knew of the topic but I was ignorant to the gravity of
the situation; it is vary more extensive then I couldve imagined. Which only shows the
importance of books and studies of this nature.
Kylia McCoy
22 November 2017
Social Problems 1020-807
Professor Zendina Mostert

Information Literacy: The New Jim Crow

1. Object Fact: As many as 13% of black men are barred from voting.
Sources:
http://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/2016/systemic-racism-is-real
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=121724
Cannot track further. No link to original survey/data.
Credibility:
Verification/Original Source: ABC news has no link to the original study or
survey that they are continuously citing in this article, and B&J has no alternative
link to the original data.
Personal Knowledge: This statistic seems like it would be true, and follows the
path that I understand from information laid out by The New Jim Crow and other
books, though it is not obvious enough to merit acceptance.
Another Source/Study: ...one in 13 African Americans who would otherwise be
eligible to vote are disenfranchised because of a felony conviction. Thats more
than 7.4 percent of the total population of adult African Americans, a rate that is
four times higher than the 1.8 percent of non-African Americans disenfranchised
due to a conviction
http://www.vocativ.com/365545/rate-black-people-cant-vote-felony-
convictions/index.html
http://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/6-million-lost-
voters-state-level-estimates-felony-disenfranchisement-2016/
Credibility: Initially, I didnt trust the source. It seemed true but there was no
hard evidence, upon further inspection its because it may have been taken out of
context 1/13 was mis read at 13% or something along those lines. Having a
link to the original study makes it far more believable since I can see the data and
research that went into getting the results and the objective results without the
subjective opinion butting in. Surprisingly, B&J (yes the ice cream company?)
was a good starting point, with a quick breakdown and easy links to their original
publications tracking the sources from NBC to ABC to Fox and so forth was
the harder part.
2. laws assigned much harsher sentences for using or possessing crack, for example, compared to
cocaine.
Sources:
http://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/2016/systemic-racism-is-real
https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2010/08/03/data-show-racial-
disparity-in-crack-sentencing
http://www.vocativ.com/underworld/drugs/crack-vs-coke-
sentencing/index.html
http://www.drugandalcoholdependence.com/article/S037
6-8716(15)00049-6/abstract
Credibility:
Verification: I was able to track the source back to the original study and verify
the data. I had to Google search the fact, since US News didnt have a source, but
it was obvious where their information came from.
Personal Knowledge: I did know that many places in the U.S. do have different
laws with Crack and Coke, so it wasnt too hard to believe their information, but
I didnt make a snap judgment on its authenticity since I didnt have any idea
about the rates, state laws, percentages and so forth.
Credibility: This was a study done by doctors in their field, they represent
national institutes and universities, which makes it easy to trust the legitimacy of
the study. As well as having a fairly clear timeline through news media and
source tracking made it understandable and trustworthy.

3. It nearly tripled between 1984 and 2009 - Racial Wage Gap

Sources:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/02/civil-rights-act-anniversary-racism-
charts_n_5521104.html
http://iasp.brandeis.edu/pdfs/Author/shapiro-thomas-
m/racialwealthgapbrief.pdf
Credibility:
Verification: The main article had already verified the information and linked to
a pdf of the original findings/data. There is no doubt where the sources came
from.
Personal Knowledge: I could use no personal information in regards to
deciphering the legitimacy of the information presented, other than the common
understanding of there being a racial and gender pay gap in the U.S. A gap is
understood to be there, though information on the exact percentages of the
discrepancy or wealth total was unknown.
 Another Source/Study: White Americans use drugs more than black Americans,
but black people are arrested for drug possession more than three times as often
as whites. (11 of same list)
Credibility: The fact that this website was so open about their sources and linked
to a free and public pdf of the original source makes it very credible. As well it
was produced by credible people in their field of work.

4. White Americans use drugs more than Black Americans, but black people are arrested for drug
possession more than three times as often as whites.
Sources:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/02/civil-rights-act-anniversary-racism-
charts_n_5521104.html
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/17/racial-disparity-drug-
use_n_3941346.html
https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/related_material/8%20Fel
lner_FINAL.pdf
Credibility:
Verification: It was a bit confusing to find the original source, as the secondary
link didn't work and I had to search the article for another mention of the same
source. I was able to track it back to Ms. jamie Fellners original study. I was
unable to find a statistic on the first half of the statement. In fact, there were some
statistics in the secondary piece to argue against whites using drugs more than
PoCs.
Personal Knowledge: The only knowledge I have on the subject was from The
New Jim Crow, and it was not helpful in deciding on the legitimacy of this study
because the statistical data was, by far, different.
Another Source/Study: Once you get to K-12, black children are three times
more likely to be suspended than white children. Black students make up almost
40 percent of all school expulsions, and more than two thirds of students referred
to police from schools are either black or Hispanic, says the Department of
Education.
Credibility: At first, I was surprised to find that the second source didnt link to
another article or to the original source I found that it was because it was a half
truth. The original source was hard to find, and deliberately hidden, unlike most
the others. This was because the original source stated that there was only a slight
discrepancy between white and black use of those drugs but a large gap between
sentencing. White it is technically true that the study did find that white people
used more, it was so insignificant that the original author felt the need to state
that it was likely due to their sample size and nothing else. This made Huffington
Post rather untrustworthy to me, but I still trust the original source.
5. Once you get to K-12, black children are three times more likely to be suspended than white
children. Black students make up almost 40 percent of all school expulsions, and more than two
 thirds of students referred to police from schools are either black or Hispanic, says the
Department of Education.
Sources:
https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/at-the-edge/2015/05/06/institutional-
racism-is-our-way-of-life
https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-discipline-
snapshot.pdf
Credibility:
Verification: It was incredibly easy to track down the original source, which was
sponsored by the US department of Educations Office for Civil Rights. And in
the large file, it was still very easy to find the data that the original article was
referencing.
Personal Knowledge: Having read Pushout, a book dedicated to the inequality
that Girls of Color face in school, this information was relatively easy to
understand and believe; though I wanted to have a concise and reliable source
before believing it.
Another Source/Study:
In the workplace, black college graduates are twice as likely as whites to
struggle to find jobs - the jobless rate for blacks has been double that of
whites for decades.
A study even found that people with black-sounding names had to
send out 50 percent more job applications than people with white-
sounding names just to get a call back.
Credibility: This being recognized as legitimate by the US government, as well
as being very easy to find and understand made this article very credible to me.

6. (a) In the workplace, black college graduates are twice as likely as whites to struggle to find jobs
- the jobless rate for blacks has been double that of whites for decades. (b) A study even found
that people with black-sounding names had to send out 50 percent more job applications than
people with white-sounding names just to get a call back.
Sources:
(a)https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/at-the-edge/2015/05/06/institutional-
racism-is-our-way-of-life
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/20/black-college-
graduates_n_5358983.html
http://cepr.net/documents/black-coll-grads-2014-05.pdf
(b)https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/at-the-edge/2015/05/06/institutional-
racism-is-our-way-of-life
http://www.nber.org/digest/sep03/w9873.html
Credibility:
Verification: This source took a few tries to find, but was rather easy to find, it
was only a few times removed which means it is likely watered down or
tainted but it was easy to find the original information to verify that.
 Personal Knowledge: I have heard of the name discrimination before, so it
wasn't hard to imagine, but I was unsure about the percentages, since they
seemed rather high.
Another Source/Study: On the New Jersey Turnpike, for instance, blacks make
up 15 percent of drivers, more than 40 percent of stops and 73 percent of arrests
even though they break traffic laws at the same rate as whites. In New York
City, blacks and Hispanics were three and four times as likely to be stopped and
frisked as whites.
Credibility: This article was fairly credible, since it linked easily and fast to the
original studies. It was also laid out in a fairly factual, not subjective/opinion,
many of its studies were also authored and performed by credible scientists and
sociologists in their fields. I feel fairly comfortable with this project.

7. On the New Jersey Turnpike, for instance, blacks make up 15 percent of drivers, more than 40
percent of stops and 73 percent of arrests even though they break traffic laws at the same rate as
whites. In New York City, blacks and Hispanics were three and four times as likely to be stopped
and frisked as whites.
Sources:
https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/at-the-edge/2015/05/06/institutional-
racism-is-our-way-of-life
http://sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Race-and-
Justice-Shadow-Report-ICCPR.pdf

*Note: None of my statistics exceeded 10 years since original publication, to my knowledge.

Kylia McCoy
6 December 2017
Social Problems 1020-807
Professor Zendina Mostert
Final Presentation: The New Jim Crow

The Problem

My question is in what ways are the policies we still uphold in our national/state government still
discriminatory against racial minorities and how those are affecting people of color. Nationally, there are
very high rates of African-Americans who cannot vote, who are imprisoned wrongfully or with a more
severe punishment than that of their white counterpart (Pt B Assignment, #1, #2, #4, #5, #7). As well,
there are laws that treat racially specific crimes as worse for minority groups. (Pt B Assignment, #2 & #4
Crack v. Coke) Aside from the laws that are blatantly discriminatory, we also have widespread and
accepted stereotyping, that play into those laws. For example, black men are known to abandon their
children, supposedly, whereas in reality they are more likely to form a stronger bond with the mother and
child than white families. The main reason when that isn't the case is if they are imprisoned. (Mychal
Smith, Washington Post) The main concepts needed to understand the issue mostly come into play in the
historical aspect of it. Ideas like the Reconstruction, Jim Crow Laws, Emmett Till, Redlining, Separate
but Equal, and the Veil.

The Reconstruction: After the Civil war ended, 4 million slaves were let free, which meant the vast
majority of farms were understaffed, and there was a incredibly high rate of homeless and/or jobless
African-Americans (a stigma we still treat as true). During the reconstruction, governments implemented
laws, programs and also set in place the new social hierarchy in the south. Black men and women were no
longer on the bottom, though many still treated them this way, they were equal in many ways to poor
white people.

Jim Crow Laws/Separate but Equal: These laws came into effect after the reconstruction, and are what
many of us think of when mentioning racism in modern America, these are colored only water
fountains and whites only stores. These are laws that segregate People of Color and White Americans
from each other and was one way in which politicians attempted to keep in place the barrier between the
two, as well as to help prevent people like the KKK from attacking innocent Black people and how to
keep dangerous black men from harming white women, Emmett Till being one of the most famous
cases of this.

Emmett Till: A normal black kid from Mississippi who, at the age of 14, was lynched and ultimately
murdered for offending a white grocery store owner. Mrs. bryant claimed that the child had verbally
harassed her and whistled at her, and while no one was able to prove that she had or had not been
harassed Emmett was treated like a criminal for it. A few nights later, two family members of hers
kidnapped, beat and eventually killed Emmett. Years later, Mrs. Bryant confessed to fabricating the entire
ordeal, and Emmett died for no reason, other than the revolution that sparked after his death.
Redlining: States who had a very low African-American population were faced with a hard choice...
should they implement laws like Jim Crow, that would cost taxpayers and the states Millions to build
separate facilities or be decent humans. Instead they implemented non-racially motivated practices
(which were totally racially motivated) Which included allowing businesses and government policies to
differ based on neighborhoods. This means that they could deny services, or raise prices to those who
lived in bad neighborhoods aka the minority hotbeds. For example, McDonald's could charge twice as
much in a ghetto neighborhood for the extra costs that go into being in that area, simply because of the
area and regardless of local economy. This may seem insignificant, until one factors in the housing
market Suddenly loan offices were allowed to charge a significant difference on the interest, meaning
they can easily scam poor minority groups out of money. This also led to very drastically separated
neighborhoods, the quality of living in those towns (being poor areas) went down and many were
unable to buy a home their entire lives. We still see the effects of this today.. Look at the difference
between west side schools like Kearns High School as compared with Park City High School, considered
one of the best. It is important to note their diversity as well.

The Veil: This is considered a socioeconomic barrier between the White Americans and the Black
Americans of the era It is compared to the Glass Ceiling that women face, while being directly related
to Jim Crow Laws, it is still in place, years after Jim Crow died.

Historical Context

The main reason why we have racism still is because we are content with the leftover laws from the eras
mentioned above. Laws were created to fit old time thoughts and ideas about the world, and we have yet
to go into those laws and fix them. During Jim Crow, African-Americans were seen as always criminals
and dangerous by the majority of the public, so it is not odd that they would purposefully write laws that
were disproportionately hard on People of Color. But, we have yet to go back to many of those laws and
fix them to fit our modern day understanding of the world and our black neighbors.

We can look to the War on Drugs as an example, it was, in part created to replace Jim Crow laws. Jim
Crow had ended less than a few decades previously, and once it died, we needed a new system of
control (a way to appease the racists) Black Americans were still seen as dangerous so they needed a
war to prevent the ghetto drug crisis from spreading. While this is important, no one should die from
drugs, it was implemented in a skewed way, and we have still hardly challenged that even after nearly
half a century. Laws were put into place that hardened the sentencing for drug crimes.

For example a mandatory minimum sentencing of five years for five grams crack cocaine as compared to
powder cocaine, which needs at least 500 grams to reach a mandatory minimum of five years. So why is
the law requiring such a large discrepancy for a drug that has the same family, the same strength, effects
and death rate to the other? Crack cocaine is cheaper and is more often bought by black individuals,
whereas powder cocaine is more expensive, high end and bought by white individuals.

Theoretical Paradigm
I am using Conflict theory as the major contributor to my topic, since it is directly comparing one to the
other. The main definition of conflict theory is how the elite control the poor and weak and that is
exactly what I am talking about, how rich white men control poor black families through our laws,
policies, and social understanding of each other.

Subjective Situations/Qualitative Data

One case in the news currently is Brock Turner, a white college swim team star and the literal definition
of rape in a few textbooks and his sentencing as compared to Cory Batey, a black college football star and
rapist. Many people were shocked and disgusted to find out that Turner would only be spending six
months in prison, many more were angered when he got out three months early due to good behavior
after raping an unconscious person in an alley. I was disgusted when I learned that his attorney would
even be trying to get a retry for literally the most lenient sex related crime in the news lately because a
witness said it was behind a dumpster instead of three-walled, enclosed garbage area. Turners father
stated that his son shouldnt spend his life in prison for 20 minutes of action, aka rape, since he was a
good man who worked so hard to get where he was and that he was sorry. Batey on the other hand, raped
an unconscious woman, but his family had less money, is black and so forth. Batey will spend 15 years in
prison, whereas Turner spent three months in prison. While both these crimes are disgusting, and should
be punished, they should be punished fairly. They are also not identical, but they are similar enough to be
comparable in this fashion.

Local Information

This is still an issue in Utah, we do not have nearly as severe of the leftovers from Jim Crow Laws, since
those were more prominent in the South, but we have a very severe case of left over redlining. Our
minority groups are shoved into a corner, forgotten about, attacked, abused by police, used as an excuse
and generally not cared about by our local government. In fact, in the last few months, direct attacks have
been increasing dramatically on the People of Color communities in Utah. Hate crimes related to race had
been decreasing steadily since 2012, although it has since started to go up again. In 2014 there were 47
hate crimes, the majority of which were racially motivated, to 50 in 2015 and this year there has already
been 66 reported. This follows a national trend, but it is a local one as well, Utah is having these issues
still.

Summary
The most important ideas to understand about this is that it is systematic, not people. The majority of
americans are not against or hate black people, it is old policies that people don't want to change that are
doing these things. Conservatives do not want to change old policies, since their party is all about
preserving history but many of these laws are outdated and racist, like the Crack v. Powder Cocaine laws.
Another is that these prejudices are still around and an issue in our society. Many people think that racism
is gone besides crazy klan members, and it has gotten amazingly better in recent years, but we need to be
aware that this is an issue in our lifetime too. One solution to change this is to, at least, start advocating
for the review and rewriting of many laws, go through the original War on Drugs policies and find the
racially motivated discrepancies. Another is to teach, if we spread the information, we teach and help
more people learn about it then they will start to understand that the issue is very much so alive. The
outstandingly majority of people who I talked about with the crack v powder laws said they had no idea
there was even a difference in the handling of drug criminals. Most even said that they knew they were
the same drug but not that minority groups and the poor are the ones to use crack. People were angry that
the main difference was race and it was still legally handled differently.

Citations

Smith, Mychal (2017, January 10). The dangerous myth of the missing black father. Retrieved December
03, 2017, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/01/10/the-dangerous-
myth-of-the-missing-black-father/?utm_term=.e5b7f4dfb370

Paighten Harkins (November 18, 2017), & Pharkins@sltrib.com twitterFollow @PaightenHarkins.

(n.d.). Hate crimes are increasing in Utah and most are race related, FBI data show. Retrieved
December 03, 2017, from http://www.sltrib.com/news/2017/11/18/hate-crimes-increasing-in-utah-
like-rest-of-the-country-fbi-data-says/