Something that stayed with me most from the reading was the manipulation in place during plea-bargaining. The fact that sentences are so over the top that innocent people will choose to do time simply so as not to gamble with spending the majority of their adult life behind bars, is absurd. Alexander highlights the discretionary power that prosecutors have within the justice system—their ability to create a rap sheet of trumped up charges, charges that likely would fail in court—simply so that they can present someone with the threat of extreme sentences so as to gain plea bargains. Something I thought it would have been interesting for Alexander to touch on would have been the prosecutor’s motives in convicting more people. Prosecutors may have political ambitions, and when they run for office they can present tough on crime stats.

Alexander’s dissection of current hip-hop culture was very interesting. Many social scientists both black and white have discussed pigeon holing involved with perceptions of black males, and the difficulties black males face in navigating an environment of generalizations and assumptions. You’re a rapper, a sports star, or a gangster, in order to have status. Popular culture doesn’t usually romanticize images of blacks as doctors, or lawyers, or business owners. Alexander’s criticisms of the minstrel aspect to hip-hop have themselves been raised within the hip-hop community. However the consumerist culture that is glorified within hip-hop is in my mind more an expression of the culture we live in, and crosses all racial barriers, hip-hop is just more blunt about it. Alexander also forgets that hip-hop is powerful more because of the beat then the lyrics. Very self respecting women will dance like you wouldn’t believe when Juveniles Slow Motion comes on—a song with highly misogynistic lyrics—however its because they are hypnotized by the beat.

-Jesse Geisler