In 2004, there were more black men disenfranchised than in 1870 - the year the 15th Amendment was ratified, prohibiting laws that deny the right to vote exclusively on the basis of race.
Michelle AlexanderRead
The rules and reasons the political system employs to enforce status relations of any kind, including racial hierarchy, evolve and change as they are challenged.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Political systems adapt and evolve in response to challenges against status hierarchies, including racial disparities.
In this quote, Michelle Alexander highlights the dynamic nature of political systems and their ruling frameworks. She asserts that as societal challenges arise against established hierarchies, such as those based on race, these systems will evolve in order to maintain and reinforce their authority, dynamics, and control. This emphasizes the ongoing struggle for equality and the necessity of vigilance in confronting systemic injustices.
Themes
PoliticsHierarchyChangeRacial InequalitySystemic Injustice
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the evolution of laws and civil rights movements.
More from Michelle Alexander
All quotes →My experience and research has led me to the regrettable conclusion that our system of mass incarceration functions more like a caste system than a system of crime prevention or control.
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The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. In Washington, D.C., our nation’s capitol, it is estimated that three out of four young black men (and nearly all those in the poorest neighborhoods) can expect to serve time in prison.
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We have avoided in recent years talking openly and honestly about race out of fear that it will alienate and polarize. In my own view, it’s our refusal to deal openly and honestly with race that leads us to keep repeating these cycles of exclusion and division, and rebirthing a caste-like system that we claim we’ve left behind
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No other country in the world imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities. The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid
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There has been an outpouring of anger and concern because of the actions of George Zimmerman, a private citizen who profiled a young boy and pursued him and tried to confront him, perhaps. But what George Zimmerman did is no different than what police officers do every day as a matter of standard operating procedure.
Michelle AlexanderRead
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