The UUA office of Multicultural Growth and Witness has announced the “Common Read” for 2012-2013 – The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander.
In the book, Dr. Alexander, an attorney and law professor who is a respected civil rights advocate and litigator, asserts that crime-fighting policies and systems in the U.S., such as the “war on drugs” and the incarceration system, disproportionately and intentionally affect Americans of color.
The New Jim Crow has been hailed as “a stunning account that details the racial profiling, criminalization, and mass incarceration practices that have resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class status—denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement.” It describes the multifaceted, lifelong discrimination and disenfranchisement that affect people who are branded “felon.”
Dr. Alexander spoke to more than 500 people at Justice GA 2012 and outlined a program for ending “The New Jim Crow” through education,
support and welcome, and advocacy and witness.
To view Dr. Alexander’s General Assembly workshop, to purchase a copy of The New Jim Crow, the free online UU Introduction Study Guide and more, visit uua.org/thenewjimcrow. You’ll also find a link there to the UUA’s 2005 Statement of Conscience on Criminal Justice and Prison Reform.