Quote 1

Once you’re labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination—employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial of educational opportunity, denial of food stamps and other public benefits, and exclusion from jury service—are suddenly legal. As a criminal, you are afforded scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a black man living in Alabama at the height of Jim Crow.

This passage occurs in the Introduction, and it sets the tone for the rest of the book. This perspective flies in the face of what many Americans have been taught about how the criminal justice system works and about what strides the nation has made towards racial equality in the past 400 years. Many believe that the function of the criminal justice system is to protect people from harm rather than cause it. What’s more, many people believe that racism in America is a relic of the past. Though there may be a few bad actors in the present, for the most part, racism is an ugly vestige of our great nation’s history, not its present.

In this quote, Alexander lays out her thesis for the entire book, which negates all these commonly held beliefs. The function of the criminal justice system, she argues here, is not primarily to protect all citizens from harm. Instead, mass incarceration serves as a new form of racial control. Here, Alexander explicitly outlines many of the rights that are denied to felons and gives readers an initial sense of how all-encompassing those denials are. Alexander also makes it explicit that the oppressions of the penal system echo the oppressions of the Jim Crow era.

Quote 2

The language of the Constitution itself was deliberately colorblind (the words slave or Negro were never used), but the document was built upon a compromise regarding the prevailing racial caste system. … Federalism—the division of power between the states and the federal government—was the device employed to protect the institution of slavery and the political power of slaveholding states.

This passage occurs in Chapter 1: The Rebirth of Caste, as Alexander traces the origins of race-neutrality and colorblindness in American history. Throughout the book, Alexander examines how colorblindness and the absence race often serves as a quiet, insidious way to embed racist ideology into national systems. Here, Alexander notes that even the document that created the nation was rooted in racist ideology and aimed to maintain the lucrative oppression of Black people.

These racist origins, Alexander argues, didn’t go away, and the strategies of colorblindness have only grown more sophisticated over time. She illustrates how President Reagan uses coded, colorblind language, such as “welfare queen” and “predator,” to use racial hostility to gain political power without making explicitly racist comments. This strategy of making “Black” synonymous with “criminal” is part of the rhetoric that has made the War on Drugs so successful. Colorblind language gives the authors of the War on Drugs plausible deniability when faced with questions on racial disparities.

Quote 3

Every system of control depends for its survival on the tangible and intangible benefits that are provided to those who are responsible for the system’s maintenance and administration. This system is no exception.

This passage occurs in Chapter 2: The Lockdown. After Alexander outlines the various abuses in the War on Drugs, she turns to the possible explanations for why the system continues to flourish. When Alexander follows the money, she learns that there is significant financial gain for law enforcement agencies to maintain the huge scope of the War on Drugs. The ideological war was paired with an influx of millions of dollars in federal money, dedicated solely to the expansion and maintenance of drug task forces. This includes pecuniary bonuses tied directly to the number of annual drug arrests and millions of dollars with of military-grade equipment. If those in these law enforcement agencies did not have ideological affinity with the War on Drugs, the financial kickbacks would be a very tangible benefit of participating.

Throughout the book, Alexander observes that the financial stake that many have in the mass incarceration system make it very difficult for them to divest. She also traces the millions of dollars that have been funneled into the building and maintenance of private prisons and how those responsible for these prisons stand to benefit from the continued explosion of the War on Drugs, at the cost of Black lives and livelihoods.

Quote 4

Hopefully the new generation will be led by those who know best the brutality of the new caste systems—a group with greater vision, courage, and determination than the old guard can muster, traded as they may be in an outdated paradigm.

In Chapter 6, the final chapter of the book, Alexander expresses guarded hope for the future. The chapter outlines how many obstacles face those who wish to battle systemic racism. Colorblindness has lured many Americans into a state of complacency. Civil rights leaders are hesitant to align with criminals, even to advocate for them. The vested interests of many parties in the continuation of this current caste system is powerful. So, the hope Alexander finds is in the next generation of organizers and activists who may, with clear vision, still find a new way forward.

Alexander has no illusions that this work will be easy. So, she uses this passage to set the stage for ending the chapter with a quote from James Baldwin, which suggests that, in some sense, the fate of the country, of the entire American project, lies in the balance and depends entirely on the nation’s ability to see all citizens as equally human.