Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Started reading this book today at the suggestion of a friend and I already have some questions: 1. CLAIM: The book claims that the practice of racial discrimination in employment, housing, access to public assistance of old was made illegal, but has now been reinstituted against black people because if you are a convicted felon you can be denied all of those things. QUESTION: wouldn’t it be the smart things to do to just not commit felonies in the first place? If the right to vote and have a job and a place to rent or buy or have access to public services was so valued, why then engage in a lifestyle that threatens that? Isn’t the real difference is that the black man living in the Jim Crow south had arguably done nothing to be denied these things and the felon of today has? 2. CLAIM: On page two she says as she walked out of the party celebrating the election of Barrack Obama, she was reminded of the harsh realities of the new Jim Crowe in America because she saw a black man handcuffed by the police, yet she doesn’t mention why or for what he was in cuffs? Question: isn’t that relevant?? Was he in cuffs for being black? Or because he had committed a crime or had an outstanding warrant? Is THIS really the evidence that we are living in an age of the new Jim Crowe? Are the cops NOT supposed to respond to a call for service? 3. CLAIM: We use the criminal justice system to label people of color as “criminals”. Question: doesn’t that apply to European, Hispanic and Asian Americans too? Isn’t just about everyone convicted of a crime labeled a criminal? 4. On page 4, the author declares “Quite belatedly, I came to see that mass incarceration in the United States had, in fact, emerged as a stunningly comprehensive and well-disguised system of racialized social control that functions in a manner strikingly similar to Jim Crow” Question: so she believes that there is a conspiracy among European American legislators and executives in America that secretly conspired to pass laws in order to go after a segment of the black population that is typically living under the poverty level, oftentimes not particularly well educated and far too often either unemployed or underemployed, while allowing the middle class and upper-middle class black folks (made up of carpenters, electricians, bank executives, salesmen and women, accountants, restaurant owners, dentists, lawyers and doctors) who have more purchase power with their higher incomes and better connections due to their jobs and social statuses flourish? Why go after the poor and downtrodden when they have no power to really deny “white America” of anything? Why would they want to do that? Wouldn’t it actually benefit these evil, racist white men at the top to see the poorest of the poor in the black community (and every other community for that matter) get good paying jobs, improve their homes or buy/build new ones, buy new cars, see less crime and all of the other things plaguing too much of the black community? 5. The author then goes on to state again that once released from prison, they have lost all the same rights that were denied to black folks under Jim Crowe. Question: assuming that is true, why then commit crimes if you are going to be denied these things? And, aren’t Americans of all backgrounds denied these things when they are convicted felons? It doesn’t just apply to black Americans, does it? 6. On page five the author states that 75% of black males can expect to spend time in prison. Question: how is this an indication of racism, especially in a city like the District of Columbia that has a black mayor, a police department that is 59% black and only 32% white, a city council of 13 democrats of which seven are black? Are the police simply driving around and arresting young black males and putting them in prison for loitering, or is the Metropolitan Police there in DC responding to serious crimes and calls for service? 7. The author states on page seven that in some areas in the United States, as many as 80% of young black males have criminal records and are now legally discriminated against. Question: Is it not THEIR fault that they have criminal records? And if they are now discriminated against, is it because of their color? Or their crime? 8. On page nine the author states that as a national average, one in three black men are in some stage of the criminal justice system, yet incarceration trends are seen as a crime problem and not as a racial justice or civil rights issue. Question: are they in jail because of their color? Or their crime? And if the likelihood of them being incarcerated for longer periods of time because the laws are targeted at them, why are they committing crimes in the first place? And who in their community is setting the right example and ALSO making them aware of the fact that if they do even the slightest thing they are going to pay a heavy price?