Chapter 2 of the book talks about the fourth amendment, where peoples civil rights are mentioned. According to law, a police officer must read the person he/she is arresting the person’s Miranda Rights. However, the problem with this is that if the people do not know they have the right to remain silent, then there is no point in the existence of these rights. Similarly, according to the Reform Acts, the suspects were asked before their possessions were searched. However, if these people did not know they had the right to refuse, then what is the point of the right’s existence? It exists for the sake of mere formality.

Furthermore, Alexander also brings up the idea of discrimination and inherent feelings of racism. For example, when a group of seemingly “unbiased” whites were asked who they thought were most likely to be the drug dealers/users, most of them replied African Americans. In reality, however, there are more whites who use and sell drugs than there are blacks. This is indicative of the feelings of racism that has unfortunately seemed to embed itself into the heart of this nation.