Essay Questions (used from and based on Alexanders book):
1. When you first opened the book, “The New Jim Crow,” what beliefs about race, racial progress, and our criminal justice system did you hold? Were you inclined to believe the claim that mass incarceration is a “new Jim Crow”? What biases, stereotypes, or assumptions might have influenced your thinking about the issues explored in this book? What life experiences have shaped your views?
2. What might it mean for a nation to be home to a caste-like system while claiming democracy as its foundation?
3. The implication is that as caste-like systems re-emerge so too do social movements determined to end caste. As you ponder the existence of mass incarceration in the present-day U.S, how does it feel to also consider that the age-old movement for freedom and justice is also here among us? Do you feel a living connection to that old, yet new movement for freedom and justice?
4. After exploring this Unit on the intersections of capitalism, slavery, class, and race what may be the causes and rationale for the emergence of the Blacks Lives Matter movement?
5. Alexander argues that if we are to build a [Human Rights] Movement, it must acknowledge and respond to the human suffering caused by an economic system of exploitation and exclusion while modeling what a compassionate society actually looks like. Do you agree? If so, what can we do, individually and collectively, to offer greater support, resources, hope, and love for people struggling to survive?
Criteria for Essay
- Feel free to answer each question by #
- Each answer to each question should be at least 1/2-to 3/4 page
- Make sure to site all readings and documentary
- Bibliography
Readings/Documentary
- The New Jim Crow
- “Slavery and Capitalism” The Chronicle of Higher Education
- The Case for Reparations” by Ta Nehisi Coates: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
- Article: Virus Is Twice as Deadly for Black and Latino People Than Whites in N.Y.C.”
- Documentary: 13th