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
We need transformational change of our criminal justice system - not just, you know, a handful of consent decrees or policy reforms.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Transformational change is essential for real improvements in the criminal justice system, beyond superficial reforms.
Michelle Alexander emphasizes the necessity for significant and fundamental changes in the criminal justice system instead of merely implementing minor reforms or policies. Her statement suggests that true justice requires a comprehensive overhaul to address systemic issues rather than band-aid solutions that do not address the root of the problems.
Themes
ChangeCriminal JusticeReformSystemic IssuesJustice
In practice
Example use cases
Quoting this in a speech about criminal justice reform at a community meeting.
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.
Michelle AlexanderRead
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.
Michelle AlexanderRead
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
Michelle AlexanderRead
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
Michelle AlexanderRead
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
Similar quotes
I think Dr. King would be pleased to see the number of elected officials of color - African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and progressive whites.
John LewisRead
Let woman share the rights and she will emulate the virtues of man; for she must grow more perfect when emancipated.
Mary WollstonecraftRead
The destiny of our land, the air we breathe, the water we drink is not in the mystical hands of an uncontrollable agent, it is in our hands. A future which brings the balancing of our resources-preserving quality with quantity - is a future limited only by the boundaries of our will to get the job done.
Richard M. NixonRead
Every revolution was first a thought in one man's mind.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
A race preserves its vigor so long as it harbors a real contrast between what has been and what may be; and so long as it is nerved by the vigor to adventure beyond the safeties of the past. Without adventure civilization is in full decay.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
As we come to know the seriousness of the situation, the war, the racism, the poverty in our world, we come to realize that things will not be changed simply by words or demonstrations. Rather, it's a question of living one's life in a drastically different way.
Dorothy DayRead