Post — Aaron Ngo

Major Spoilers are included in this book review. Please read with caution.

When my cousin recommended this book to me—during the coronavirus pandemic back in early May 2020—to pass the time, neither of us had any idea how relevant this particular book selection would be. Once the Black Lives Matter 2020 Movement became more powerful throughout June 2020, I hit the pause button on all my other readings—Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins and Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson—to give this amazing book my undivided attention. It was time to do better, and I started with reading educational non-fiction written by Black writers. In the end, I felt my time was well-invested.

I started reading this book—written by Michelle Alexander—on June 12, 2020 and finished on June 15, 2020. Basically, I spent my weekend processing and understanding America’s long history of racial inequality. Originally published in 2010 and republished in January 2020 for its Tenth Anniversary, the book centered around the U.S.’s criminal system and the harsh realities of its racial control, particularly against Black men.

What I enjoyed most about Michelle Alexander’s writing style was the unapologetic bluntness behind her words. Michelle Alexander didn’t coddle her readers in her novel-length essay nor did she beat around the bush—she always headed straight for the point and backed it up with hard facts. The main argument in this novel was that racial control was most prevalent in the U.S.’s criminal system and its prison labels, frequently marking African-American men as felons and denying them basic human rights as a result of this label.

Though published in 2010, the book’s insightful argument was still very relevant especially with what’s been going on in the world regarding the Black Lives Matter 2020 Movement. In addition, Michelle Alexander added a “Preface to the Tenth Anniversary Edition” at the start of the novel to say, “Everything and nothing has changed,” which was a powerful way to kick off this novel. This introduction section of the novel was the most compelling, as Michelle Alexander reflected on the past decade and gave context to her “Everything and nothing has changed” statement.

Also, Michelle Alexander addressed a major change she made to the original text of the novel; she “eliminated terms such as felon, ex-offender, and inmate, except when those labels or classifications are being explained or are relevant to a point being made in the text” (page xviii). She explained how those terms were being challenged by convicted people “to emphasize [their] humanity during the era of mass incarceration” (page xix).

Michelle Alexander also did an excellent job on guiding the reader through the history of racial caste systems—from slavery to Jim Crow Laws and later, the War on Drugs—and how that lead to the latest racial caste system: Mass Incarcerations.

This racial caste system also extended outside of incarceration, as many returning Black citizens were forced to carry the prison label while under parole. They are treated as second-class citizens that can’t find work, afford housing, probation fees, drug tests, etc. which could put them right back in prison. They aren’t even allowed to vote.

As a result, mass incarceration defined Black people in America—specifically Black men—as being violent criminals. This concept of criminality is a dominant narrative in our society—a racist world view.

At the end of the novel, Michelle Alexander does offer some solutions—like affirmative action—and how we—as a society—need to become less “colorblind” and more “color conscious”. The way she concluded the novel—with a passage from Black writer James Baldwin to his young nephew—was powerful, asking us to do the work by critically analyzing what’s been happening throughout history and present day. Overall, I would highly recommend reading this book. It’s a transformative and insightful experience.

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