Michelle Alexander, a civil rights lawyer and scholar currently in residence at Ohio State University, will deliver Carleton College’s convocation address on Friday, February 10. Alexander is the author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” (New Press, 2010), which will be the subject of her address, focusing on the continued legacy of discrimination against African Americans, particularly through the mass incarceration of black men. Convocation is held from 10:50-11:50 a.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel, and it is free and open to the public. A booksigning will follow Alexander’s presentation and copies of “The New Jim Crow” will be available for purchase at the event.
Alexander, who holds a joint appointment at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University, argues in her book that despite America’s supposed triumph over racial discrimination, a de facto caste system still exists, with many black Americans trapped in permanent second-class status. According to Alexander, the high incarceration rates among black men mean that forms of discrimination which are legal on the basis of criminal record—such as housing and employment discrimination as well as voting restrictions—amount to a system of racial control. In other words, “we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.” “The New Jim Crow” challenges Americans to place the mass incarceration of African Americans at the forefront of a new struggle for equality. Alexander’s book has received highly favorable reviews, with Forbes describing her argument as “devastating” and the Birmingham News calling the book “undoubtedly the most important book published in this century about the U.S.” The introduction to “The New Jim Crow” was written by prominent philosopher and activist Cornel West, who teaches at Princeton University.
Alexander has taught at Ohio State since 2005; she was formerly on the faculty of the Stanford University School of Law. An alumna of Vanderbilt University and Stanford Law, Alexander clerked for Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun and D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Abner Mikva before entering private practice. She spent several years directing the Racial Justice Project at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, which was at the forefront of a national campaign against racial profiling by law enforcement.
For more information about this event, including disability accommodations, contact the Carleton College Office of College Relations at (507) 222-4308. The Skinner Memorial Chapel is located on First Street between College and Winona Streets in Northfield. “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” is currently available for purchase at the Carleton Bookstore at a 15% discount; copies will also be sold at the discounted rate at the event.
