I’m not even sure what to say about this book that it doesn’t already say for itself. It’s an incredibly insightful and eye-opening introduction to the concept of mass incarceration and how it mirrors the Jim Crow laws (and even slavery) of the early 20th century.

Alexander takes a deep dive into the so-called “War on Drugs,” revealing it as a misnomer that conceals the broader truth. She examines incarceration rates among black and brown people compared to white people, consistently showing disproportionate imprisonment and harsher sentencing for essentially the same offenses—even when white individuals commit these crimes at equal or higher rates. What I appreciated most about The New Jim Crow was the straightforward formatting which takes the reader from Jim Crow and slavery era black codes and slowly builds on these concepts to display the shocking overlap between these laws "of the past" and their modern day comparisons in the mass incarceration system. She skillfully builds on background knowledge which allows the reader to gain deeper understanding and ease into the subject especially if it is a topic that is new to you and for this reason I found it to be incredibly helpful, as the arguments she makes are very profound. I also enjoyed the ways in which this book overlap in content with some of the other social justice books I have read in the last few months including The Care Manifesto and Caste. My greatest takeaway from Alexander's work is the need for adapting caring government programs and caring communities which would allow everyone to feel safe and secure, thus massively reducing the crime rates in virtually all communities.