The biggest thing that stood out to me was the somewhat offhand comment that Michelle Alexander made in Chapter 5. Mass incarceration stands out to many African Americans as not being evil- it is rather a necessary function of society. The fact that most African Americans in society do not realize that the system is singling them out as being primary suspects only shows just how blind everyone is to the situation. I fully agree with Alexander’s point, but I wonder why they haven’t realized it yet? Is it because it is actually doing something to help them? Or is it because they have been impacted by society’s values in such a way that there is traces of self-racism within these communities.

Following up on that point, I would venture to say that education of the African-Americans would prove to be extremely useful. Years of a certain habit tends to blur the fine lines of the situation and tends to acclimate the population to a threshold of accepted wrongdoings.

I think that we could all agree that the first people that need to be educated is not the people at large, but the people affected.