Summary of Michelle Alexander argument relative to origin of Jim Crow Essay

Summary of Michelle Alexander argument relative to origin of Jim Crow - Essay Example As a result, they were constrained to second grade jobs and opportunities such as being slaves or performing menial jobs for the whites. It follows that the form of segregation postulated and fronted took the holistic approach such that the places where the African-Americans lived was supposed to be of lower cadre or class comparative to the other white neighborhoods. Thus, it goes without saying that the limited employment opportunities of the African-Americans limited their economic empowerment and as a result they lived in poverty. This is so due to the fact that they were set to occupy low paying jobs which implies that their economic power was greatly reduced and as a result they lived poor lives. Accordingly, the current criminal justice dispensation acts as a racial tool to discriminate and control the African-Americans if the empirical evidence and statistics is anything to go by. It is critical to note and mention that the speaker in the New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander outlines that Blacks get arrested for equal or lesser crimes as their white counterparts. For instance, she mentions that the â€Å"blacks are arrested for non-violent often drug related offence, the vary sorts that occur with roughly equal frequency in the middle class white community or on college campuses.† Equally important is that the kind of treatment that the African-Americans are subjected to in prison is second class.