When reading the thoughts of Michelle Alexander on today’s racial injustice particularly towards the African-American group, I sensed that she is rather biased and therefore, only finding ways to defend for her fellow righteous African-Americans and their ancestors. While there is no doubt that the slavery and the establishment of the Jim Crow laws in American history were extremely harsh and unfair towards this racial group, I think comparing those historical events to African-Americans subjected to underprivileged and less favorable conditions due to criminal activity and record is not exactly the right correlation. It just so happens that there is a much higher percentage of African-Americans falling into this category of felons, and that is out of their own doing and actions to become those felons, not because another racial group forced them to commit such crimes. In my eyes, people are judged by what they have actually done nowadays because we don’t have ‘mass incarceration’ just because they are simply of African descent. No matter which President we have, a white, black, asian, etc. one, criminals are going to be treated the same way to get what they deserve for their wrongdoings. However, I am not objecting the fact that there are loopholes in the American criminal justice system, especially when racial stereotyping is put into play, but as with life, we have to fight for what is right.

The racial caste system is an interesting perspective. Alexander says that “We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.” (2) Of course, there are still minorities all over this country and ‘white’ people are considered the majority. I’m not going to deny that minorities usually have to put a greater effort to achieve greater political power in this country. However, I think with the election of President Obama, it shows that many racial boundaries have broken and that they don’t exist anymore as the way we have understood those boundaries for many years. Everyone has a chance to exercise their rights and they are not taken away from us unless we let them get taken away. Do you think there is a clear racial caste system in our society today? Do you think there is a “continuing legacy of slavery and Jim Crow” that has led to Alexander’s arguments thus far?