In 2004, there were more black men disenfranchised than in 1870 - the year the 15th Amendment was ratified, prohibiting laws that deny the right to vote exclusively on the basis of race.
Michelle AlexanderRead
Since the nation's founding, African Americans repeatedly have been controlled through institutions such as slavery and Jim Crow, which appear to die, but then are reborn in new form, tailored to the needs and constraints of the time.
Interpretation
The quote discusses the persistent oppression of African Americans through changing institutional forms over time.
Michelle Alexander's quote highlights the historical and ongoing struggle of African Americans against various systems of oppression that may seem to have disappeared, only to re-emerge in different forms that adapt to contemporary societal conditions. This cyclical nature of control underscores the resilience required to confront and dismantle these enduring injustices.
In practice
In a speech about civil rights, you might use this quote to illustrate the ongoing struggle faced by African Americans.
In 2004, there were more black men disenfranchised than in 1870 - the year the 15th Amendment was ratified, prohibiting laws that deny the right to vote exclusively on the basis of race.
My experience and research has led me to the regrettable conclusion that our system of mass incarceration functions more like a caste system than a system of crime prevention or control.
The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. In Washington, D.C., our nation’s capitol, it is estimated that three out of four young black men (and nearly all those in the poorest neighborhoods) can expect to serve time in prison.
We have avoided in recent years talking openly and honestly about race out of fear that it will alienate and polarize. In my own view, it’s our refusal to deal openly and honestly with race that leads us to keep repeating these cycles of exclusion and division, and rebirthing a caste-like system that we claim we’ve left behind
No other country in the world imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities. The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid
There has been an outpouring of anger and concern because of the actions of George Zimmerman, a private citizen who profiled a young boy and pursued him and tried to confront him, perhaps. But what George Zimmerman did is no different than what police officers do every day as a matter of standard operating procedure.
There is no man who desires as passionately as a Russian. If we could imprison a Russian desire beneath a fortress, that fortress would explode.
We do not live to think, but, on the contrary, we think in order that we may succeed in surviving.
When a person goes to a country and finds their newspapers filled with nothing but good news, he can bet there are good men in jail.
There are three ways of securing a society that shall be stable as regards population. The first is that of birth control, the second that of infanticide or really destructive wars, and the third that of general misery except for a powerful minority.
My dreams are a stupid refuge, like an umbrella against a thunderbolt.
As for the men in power, they are so anxious to establish the myth of infallibility that they do their utmost to ignore truth.
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