To me, the most interesting thing about The New Jim Crow is that Michelle Alexander was, at first, a skeptic. Understanding how the goal of the prison industrial complex is the same as the goal of Jim Crow is crucial to understanding the pathologies that affect poor neighborhoods. This book is a required reading for anyone who cares about race, culture or justice.

"Once in a great while a book comes along that changes the way we see the world and helps to fuel a nationwide social movement. The New Jim Crow is such a book. Praised by Harvard Law professor Lani Guinier as "brave and bold," this book directly challenges the notion that the election of Barack Obama signals a new era of colorblindness. With dazzling candor, legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." By targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control—relegating millions to a permanent second-class status—even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness. In the words of Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, this book is a "call to action."