Michelle Alexander quotes

For children, the era of mass incarceration has meant a tremendous amount of family separation, broken homes, poverty, and a far, far greater level of hopelessness as they see so many of their loved ones cycling in and out of prison. Children who have incarcerated parents are far more likely themselves to be incarcerated... (Michelle Alexander)
When we look back over the course of our nation's history, what we see again and again almost like clockwork are these predictable efforts by the wealthy elite to use race as a wedge. To pit poor whites against poor people of color for the benefit of the ruling elite. Many people don't realize that even slavery as an institution-the emergence of an all-Black system of slavery-was to a large extent the result of plantation owners deliberately trying to pit poor whites against poor Blacks. And ensure that poor whites would not join in any kind of resistance, movement, struggle, or revolt with poor Blacks... View quote
Michelle Alexander
Incarceration rates, especially black incarceration rates, have soared regardless of whether crime is going up or down in any given community or the nation as a whole. View quote
Michelle Alexander
Certainly youth of color, particularly those in ghetto communities, find themselves born into the cage. They are born into a community in which the rules, laws, policies, structures of their lives virtually guarantee that they will remain trapped for life. View quote
Michelle Alexander
The political strategy of divide, demonize and conquer has worked for centuries in the United States - since the days of slavery - to keep poor and working people angry at (and fearful of) one another rather than uniting to challenge unjust political and economic systems. View quote
Michelle Alexander