ONLINE: Fifteen years after publication of Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” the U.S. still has exponentially the highest incarceration rate of any independent democracy on earth and the national incarceration rate of Black people is six times that of white people. Alexander’s searing analysis created shockwaves in the civil rights and prison reform movements, exposing the roots and mechanics of how mass incarceration has created a permanent “undercaste” in America, an ever-increasing population of disproportionately poor people of color with subordinate and marginal status. In this course, we will carefully study Alexander's seminal work while investigating how the outcomes for those most impacted may (or may not) have changed since its publication. We will also explore the growing movements for Transformative Justice (TJ) and prison abolition, approaches for responding to violence, harm, and abuse without creating more violence. | Facilitated discussion.
Max enrollment: 30.
