Hello, and welcome to my blog! This is the first of several posts, in which I will be writing about my thoughts while reading The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander. This book, as its title alludes to, examines the connections and similarities between racial tensions in the United States during the civil rights era, and in modern day.
Although I am still only on chapter one, I have already begun to develop a sense of where this book is going stylistically, and so far I am enjoying it. Because this book is nonfiction and addresses a heavy topic, it is easy for it to become a tedious read at times. However, I have noticed that the author, Michelle Alexander, finds ways to keep the reader engaged. The section that I have read so far mostly focuses on the history of unequal treatment towards African-Americans, and how narrow-minded Americans have continuously found ways to alter and update laws that create a racial hierarchy in the United States. As mentioned earlier, Alexander's style has a nice flow, that keeps the writing interesting for the reader. I’m on page 40, and I still have almost twenty pages to go before I finish chapter one, so I like how each general argument/idea expressed in the chapter begins in a new paragraph under a heading. For example, chapter one includes “The Birth of Slavery”, “The Death of Slavery”, “The Birth of Jim Crow”, “The Death of Jim Crow”, and so on, with each segment expressing a different idea, but still connecting to the previous one, which makes the chapter flow nicely. It also provides a nice break for the reader to process their thoughts in between each major argument, and in some way, to summarize what was discussed in each section.
The author also uses hooks to keep her readers interested. To me, this kind of has the same effect as when a television show gives its viewers a preview of what will happen after the commercial break, or in the next episode, as a way to keep the viewer enticed, so they will want to watch more. In this case, it keeps the reader interested in continuing to read the book, because he or she will hopefully want to find out more about that idea. For example, after talking about the important steps that were taken towards racial equality, Alexander writes "Yet as we shall see below, Negroes stood only a 'brief moment in the sun'"(pgs 39-40). This comes shortly before the start of another segment, so it works to keep the reader interested in starting the next section, and finding out what disrupted this fight. In general, the style is narrated somewhat casually, which I think makes it more interesting for the reader. When the author is talking about historical events (the majority of what I have read so far), she is able to, for the most part, prevent her writing from simply sounding like a history textbook.
And now onto some of my thoughts on the book's topic. I think that, as unfortunate as it is, the argument of the book, that there is essentially a "New Jim Crow", is not a difficult one to make. The similarities between the civil rights era and today are not always extremely obvious, yet they are still constantly there. One thing in particular that struck me in the beginning of the book was when the author discussed the Ku Klux Klan. She wrote about how the group targeted black Americans and civil rights activists with "bombings, lynchings, and mob violence" (pg. 30). As most everyone knows, innocent African-Americans being killed for no reason is a horrific reality of our country's current state, which was why the mention of these events had unfortunate similarities with what we are constantly seeing in the news. The mention of mob violence, in my experience, is not as commonly talked about today, however it did however lead me to think of one specific example that occurred recently - the white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville. The supremacists at the rally, like the Ku Klux Klan, formed a mob, and the day ended with multiple injuries, and the death of a white counter-protester. I found that this comparison was especially interesting, because the book mentions that the Ku Klux Klan targeted not only black Americans, but also white Americans who were assisting the push for civil rights, such as white NAACP leaders. Although there were multiple similarities that stood out to me while reading, this was one that I found especially compelling.
And this is only the beginning! I am enjoying this book so far, and I look forward to reading more. I think that my thoughts on the parallels between the era with Jim Crow laws, and modern day will continue to grow throughout the book. I feel that there are multiple ways in which African-Americans are subjected to, as the book explains, invisible Jim Crow laws. They are found in things that most people may never even think about, and despite not being blatant, their effects create damage in ways similar to the segregation laws.
Thank you for reading, and I'll see you in my next post!
Hi Jennifer!
ReplyDeleteEven though I'm not reading the same book as you, I've had similar thoughts reading my book, about style and otherwise. I enjoyed reading your comments on the flow of your book. While there aren't as many strong hooks in Race by Marc Aronson, I have realized that my author likes to use anecdotes or narratives to keep the flow going. You also discussed briefly the connections The New Jim Crow is able to make to the current world. Was there anything that surprised you? I'm excited for your next post!
Hi Clara!
DeleteThere were definitely some connections that were more unexpected for me. The author mentioned at one point that African-Americans were attacked at times with bombs. That stood out to me because I feel like the multiple bombings that killed innoent African-Americans during the civil rights era are often not discussed enough. Reading that part, the first thing that came to my mind was the recent bombings in Texas. I don't know too much about that situation, but from what I do know, it is definitely possible that the incidents were race-related. I thought that was interesting because when we hear about the constant killings of minorities, especially African-Americans, we don't usually think about bombs, but guns, because they are the much more commonly used weapon. However, reading about that definitely made me think, and I believe that there are many other connections like that, that don't stand out as much when I think about America's current state of racial inequality.
Nice post, Jennifer! I thought the quotesyou used were very good examples of each stylistic device that you talked about, and the connections you made between the Ku Klux Klan and the white-supremicist rally were really interesting. Even though you are still early on in the book, do you think that it has already caused you to see ties between the racial tensions in the Civil RIghts Era and modern day that you wouldn't have thought of before?
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lily! I have definitely seen connections that were more unexpected. One of them that I am still trying to understand more came up when the author mentioned that African-Americans have been held back at times due to the higher poverty levels that they tend to be more likely to face. I think this is another aspect of racial inequality in modern-day America that is not commonly discussed, and it really made me think when I read it. I have been thinking about it, and wondering how much of the problem stemmed from slavery, and how much it has continued due to racism, such as African-Americans having a harder time getting jobs, etc. It's an interesting concept that I will definitely be continuing to think about as I keep reading the book.
DeleteHi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on many things that you wrote in this blog post, especially about what the author does in order to captivate readers and also the parallels you drew between the civil rights era and modern times. I noticed that you mostly focused on parallels between the civil rights era and today, and I was wondering what you thought about her connections to earlier times even before slavery when she mentioned things like Bacon's Rebellion and how the idea of race came about. That part of the book particularly interested me, and I was wondering what your thoughts on that comparison was.
Hi Bekah, sorry for the delayed response. My initial reply didn't go through for some reason. I definitely think that there was an interesting comparison between racial tensions in modern day and the initial concept of racial inequality. The book mentioned that during the time of Bacon's rebellion, people began to separate black and white people, who were essentially all slaves. Even though they were all of the same social class/situation, their different skin colors gave people a reason to say that they weren't equal. I think that in society today, we see a lot of that, through white privilege. People often find ways to justify putting down an African-American, for being poor, for example, by acting like it is due to their social/economic status. However, a white American living in the same amount of poverty would likely not be treated like that. I just thought it was interesting how quickly that inequality seemed to come about during that time, and how much it is still used in the same way today.
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