The New Jim Crow: Michelle Alexander to speak in Houston

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Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of color-blindness, will appear next week at a speaking engagement in H-Town sponsored by Progressive Forum Houston and the ACLU of Texas. I've mentioned before that Grits doesn't necessarily buy into the book's thesis, but there's little doubt it has brought significant attention to issues of mass incarceration, focusing on criticisms from the opposite end of the political spectrum from say, the Right on Crime crowd.

One of the reasons for optimism that the nation could be on the brink of ending, or at least reevaluating, the era of mass incarceration in which we find ourselves is that vastly differing criticisms of the system have arisen from across the political spectrum, from traditional conservatives to unabashed liberals to Ron Paul libertarians. Thinking people have announced their dislike for overincarceration from virtually every spot on the political spectrum, with most of the public support tending to come from folks with a financial stake in its continuance - police unions, prosecutors, prison officials, private prison companies, and the array of contractors which have sprung up to service prisons and law enforcement. Further, the influence of the latter group has been constrained by harsh budget realities in which funding for mass incarceration must compete with more popular education and health care priorities. Today, even politicians who built their careers promoting mass incarceration are beginning to moderate their lock-em-up proclivities.

I may not agree with Alexander's overall thesis about Jim Crow - I think that argument ignores the fact that black folks are disproportionately victims of crime, and also trivializes the vast differences between the liberty and opportunities afforded black people today compared to the era of American apartheid - but many of her arguments in the book are spot on, and she's made a valuable contribution to the national conversation on the subject. If you're in Houston (regrettably, I can't be), you may want to attend the event and hear what she has to say.