Based on the direction of the discussion in A New Jim Crow was going, it was quiet obvious to expect more facts that place previously incarcerated individuals into a second class. However in chapter four, I was surprised to see Michelle Alexander compare the current Hip-Hop culture to a form of a minstrel show. I always thought of the Hip-Hop scene’s references to drugs and gang related violence as a form of expression and rebellion, but thinking of it as a minstrel was always a little farfetched for me. The following reference is one reference to rap and hip-hop becoming akin to minstrel shows and I think it has a point when listening to hip-hop songs that have and had charted on the Billboard Top 100. Nas and Nick Cannon perform the following video, where they pose in blackface and make a mockery of themselves to show the audience that Hip-Hop may change in a negative way if artists continue performing about music that mocks their culture. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRVqVwGWocM
I can empathize with her case of treating a group of released felons as a second class and expect them to not react in a negative way. I also believe that there should be some leeway for prior felons in receiving benefits such as food stamps and accessing HUD in unbiased ways. Perhaps if the “box” changed from asking if an individual was ever arrested or associated with a crime to asking if an individual was previously arrested or associated with a crime in the last 5 years, it would help curb some of the discrimination on the federal level. I am sure that even if the “box” was changed for private employers, companies could get around it by conducting background checks. It would be an advantage to not asking the prior felony question at all, because omitting the felony question would immediately start to raise red flags when an applicant is “suspected” to be a criminal. As I have been building up on my previous responses, I cannot wait to read Alexander’s proposed solution for the problem. Since she is so knowledgeable on the topic of what happens when one is incarcerated, she should know of some methods that can be done in the public and private sector that may be able to remedy the situation.
I thought it was quite interesting how you mentioned in your last sentence that you were waiting to see a solution, but you proposed a solution yourself. By suggesting that perhaps the box on the application be changed to “have you ever been arrested” from “have you ever been convicted,” you proposed a viable solution that could very well rectify this problem.