Bless the Mic speaker says incarceration of Black men is today’s Jim Crow

Seventy percent of professional Black women are unmarried due to mass incarceration of Black men, according to Michelle Alexander, author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” (The New Press, $27.95). The book discusses the experiences of African-American men in prison as the new caste system in America that has replaced Jim Crow.

Alexander, an activist, legal scholar, attorney and associate professor at Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University, spoke at the Bless the Mic series at Philander Smith College on Tuesday night to a crowd of more than 200 people with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock on Race and Ethnicity as one of the sponsors.

She said an increase in the prison population started with President Ronald Reagan’s war on drugs in 1982 and expanded with President Bill Clinton’s championing drug laws preventing drug offenders from food stamps, student loans and public housing for life.

“With no job, housing or food stamps, what do you do?” Alexander asked the audience. “America has the highest rate of incarceration in the world.”

There is also the shame and stigma of being in prison that follows convicted felons forever. Most of the men will cycle in and out of prison for the rest of their lives. Seventy percent of convicted felons return to prison within three years of getting out and many, in a matter of months, because surviving on the outside is very difficult. One in three African-American men is currently in prison, jail, probation or parole, according to reports.

She suggested that the community work to end the system of mass incarceration as a whole, end discrimination for people coming out of prison, and shift from the punitive to the rehabilitative model.

“Nothing short of a major social movement will end mass incarceration,” she said. It will take a major shift in consciousness ... we need to open our hearts and open our arms so people feel safe for healing and take collective action.”

Alexander said everyone could be considered criminals since we have all sinned, made mistakes and done wrong in our lives.

“There but for the grace of God go I,” Alexander said. “We need to create loving places for people when they come home. It has to be a multi-racial, multi-ethnic movement otherwise we will destroy the lives of people of all colors.” Subtitle: Major shift in consciousness