January 8, 2018

New Jersey Bans the Book, “The New Jim Crow”

After being called out by social justice advocates, the New Jersey Department of Corrections reversed their ban on, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”. In the book, author Michelle Alexander explores how today’s criminal justice system is similar to the old “Jim Crow”, which systemically and structurally promoted disparate treatment, sentencing, and outcomes that disadvantage black and brown people. The ban was previously implemented in at least two New Jersey prisons.

HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO STRUCUTRAL RACISM?

The NJ Department of Corrections’ ban was a form of censorship that kept inmates oblivious to systematic inequities and injustices that directly impact them. One has to wonder why a book chronicling structural racism and oppression was banned but Adolf Hitler’s autobiography is permitted. A recent New York Times article says that, “According to data from The Sentencing Project, a prison reform advocacy group, New Jersey has the highest disparity between black and white inmates of any state, with 12.2 black inmates for every white inmate.”

Inmates deserve the right to educate themselves on issues that affect them. Laws and policies have disproportionately impacted people of color throughout history. Campaigns like the War on Drugs and Stop-and-Frisk have targeted African American and Latino communities, leading to the mass incarceration of more than a hundred-thousand people of color. Felony convictions result in socioeconomic disadvantages that include the inability to access social services, limited job opportunities, and political disenfranchisement due to the loss of voting rights. The racial disparities produced in the prison industrial complex are a reflection of structural racism. Banning a book that sheds light on this injustice is itself a compounding result of existing structural racism, i.e. structurally denying black and brown inmates of this knowledge.

For more on the book banning see, "Ban on Book About Mass Incarceration Lifted in NJ Prisons After ACLU Protest".