Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book TV 20130302

Are you interested in being a part of booktvs Online Book Club . Every month well feature a different book and author, and youre invited to join. Interested . Send an email to book tv cspan. Org, post a comment on facebook. Com booktv or send us a tweet booktv. Michelle alexander, the author of booktvs first Online Book Club selection, the new jim crow, recently spoke about her book at the university of tennessee. Heres a look at that event. [applause] well, thank you. Thank you so much for this warm welcome. It feels wonderful to be here. I am thrilled to see so many people eager to join if dialogue dialogue [audio difficulty] and it seems fitting that we would have this conversation the day after our nations first black president was sworn in for his second term. Now, i know much of the nation has already moved on, and president obamas soaring rhetoric about the promise of america life, liberty, justice, equality for all has already been forgotten by many, and i know that many, many people in america will not think of dr. King again until his holiday rolls around again next year. But id like for us to pause tonight and think more deeply about the meaning of dr. Kings life and his legacy and what it has to teach us about our nations present. Seems marley important for us seems particularly important fur us to do that given this year marks the 50th anniversary of the march on washington. My fifty years have passed. Fifty years have passed suns kings voice since kings voice soared over the washington monuments declaring his dream. I have a dream, it is a dream deeply rooted in the american dream. And yesterday while i was watching president obamas inaugural address, i heard echoes of kings speech. , i have a dream. And when i turned off my television set, i spent a few minutes reflecting on the question, are all of us, all of us truly welcome to share in this dream . The same dream that dr. King dreamed . Most americans, im sure, can recite portions of dr. Kings i have a dream speech by heart. Its an extraordinary and very familiar speech. Ive grown accustomed to hearing clips of his speech played over and over, recycled over and over on the radio every january. They are the favorite quotes, the favorite lines. And now that i have schoolage children, i see how king is explained to them in classrooms. When i was many elementary school, there was no Martin Luther king day, no discussion of his heroism in classrooms. But when my children came home from school the other day, they told me all they had learned in school about kings courage. He was the man who stood up to the bullies, the man who believed all children and walks of life ought to be able to hold hands and be judged by their content and character and not the color of their skins. He was willing to die so that all of us could now live his dream. And i find myself conflicted as i listened to my children parrot back to me what theyve heard in school about this man who believed in kindness and forgiveness and justice and compassion for all. And i say, yes, yes, all of that is untrue all of that is true. But i feel uneasy. I know that something has been lost in the translation. And that sense of disorientation was crystallized for me recently when i read vincent hardings insightful book Martin Luther king the inconvenient hero. Dr. Harding was one of kings closest friends and advisers marching with him countless times and living around the corner from kings family in atlanta. Harding writes with some real sorrow, quote it appears as if the price for the First National holiday honoring a black man is the development of a massive case of National Amnesia concerning who that black man really was. I would suggest that we americans have chosen amnesia rather than continue kings painful, uncharted and often disruptive struggle toward a more perfect union, end quote. It appears, he says, as if we are determined to hold our new hero captive to the powerful period of his life that culminated in the magnificent march on washington in 1963, refusing to allow him to break out beyond the stunning eloquence of his i have a dream speech. Dr. Harding writes, quote we would like to forget that it was not the weaver of gentle, sun dreams of freedom who was shot down on a balcony in memphis, tennessee, end quote. He was, by 1968, a different, even more courageous man, a man ahead of his time. And i can see clearly now that on days like yesterday we rarely honor the man who died. No, we honor that sunny, cheery version of him. We honor the man who gave the soaring speech about black and white school children, a man who dreamed an integrationist dream. But who was king five years later . In 1968 . Who was that man killed on a motel balcony, the man who was marching with sanitation workers and demanding economic justice, not mere civil rights . The man who had come to believe after the civil rights bills had already been passed, after the civil rights victories had already been won that our biggest battles, the most important battles still lie ahead and that nothing, nothing short of a radical restructuring of our society held any hope for making the dream and promise of america a reality for all of its citizens. Of king explained to a reporter in 1967, quote for years i labored with the idea of reforming the existing institutions of the society. A little change here, a little change there. Now i feel quite differently. Think youve got i think youve got to have a reconstruction of the entire society, a revolution of values. Frustrated by white resistance to addressing in any meaningful way decaying ghettos, failing schools, structural joblessness and crippling poverty, king told his staff at the southern christian leadership conference, quote the dispossessed of this nation, the poor both white and negro live in a cruelly unjust society. They must organize a revolution against that injustice. Not against the lives of their fellow citizens, but against the structures through which the society is refusing to lift the load of poverty. Finish so what would king think of us today, of the world we have created in his absence . Would he believe that the nonviolent revolution had already been won . Had even begun . The revolution of values that he prayed for . Would he, if he could see us today, believe that we now share his dream, that we are now traveling the road he was marching . Fifty years later have we caught up with king yet . Are we finally on the path that he was traveling in 1963, 1968 . Back in 1969 while blood still stained the motel balcony where dr. King was murdered, a poem was written honoring his life and reflecting on his death. The poem was written back when king had only just begun the process of being transformed in our collective consciousness from a troublesome, dangerous black figure to a national hero. It was written way back when the memory of kings assassination was still fresh, tears still spilling among those who loved him. Back then in 1969 the parol carl wendell hiems jr. Penned this poem reflect on kings death. He wrote now that he is safely dead, let us praise him, build monuments to his glory, sing hosannas to his name. Dead men make such convenient heroes. They cannot rise to challenge the images we would fashion from their lives. And besides, it is easier to build monuments than to build a better world, so now that he is safely dead, we with eased consciouses will teach our children that he was a great man knowing that the cause for which he lived is still a cause, and the dream for which he died is still a dream, a dead mans dream. Now that he is safely dead, Martin Luther king jr. Safely dead. Is it true . Is he safely dead today . Is his dream safely dead . Now, i know that many people in this room would say, no, no, no. Dr. Kings dream, his spirit is still so much alive amongst all of us. Its thriving right here in this room. And what better evidence could there be of this fact than that we, as a nation, all pause to pay tribute to his dream just yesterday, a National Federal holiday. Think about that. A National Federal holiday for Martin Luther king jr. , the man who was once deemed a threat to National Security by the fbi, a radical troublemaker. Is it not obvious that we as a nation have finally caught up with king . We may not be living his dream, but dont we at least share his dream . What percent evidence of this what better evidence of this could there be than we just reelected our nations first black president . Something that was unimaginable in 1963 or 1968. What better evidence could there be than that beautiful multiracial, multiethnic gathering on the mall in washington, d. C. That we witnessed just yesterday and that was broadcast around the world . Clearly, we must be living the dream or sharing the dream, right . It has been said by numerous philosophers and theologians that any society, any civilization must be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable members and its prisoners. King would no doubt agree with that assessment. And in considering how we fare in that regard, i find myself thinking of people like susan burton, people who have cycled in and out of our nations prison system in era of mass incarceration. In this postking, postcivil rights era, a time when our prison population that is more than quintupled, and millions of people overwhelmingly poor people of color have been permanently locked up or locked out, stripped of the very civil and human rights dr. King and so many others risked their lives for and some even died for. I think of susan whose son was killed by the police, a Police Cruiser barreling down her street in los angeles ran over her 5yearold boy. She received no apology, no real acknowledgment of her loss, and she fell into a deep, deep depression, wracked with grief. And she ultimately became addicted to crack cocaine. Now, if susan had been wealthy, if she had even been solidly middle class with a good job and a Good Health Care plan, she undoubtedly would have qualified for many, many hours of therapy and counseling. She likely would have qualified for very good legal prescription drugs that would help her cope with her severe depression and grief. But, no, things were different for susan. Impoverished, living in l. A. , she became addicted to crack cocaine and thus began her odyssey of cycling in and out of prison for 15 years, 15 years. Every time, prosecutors said, just take the deal. Well give you three years rather than eight. Time well give you five years rather than 12. This time, this time well cut you a break. Just take the deal. Well give you two years rather than six. One plea deal after another, never offered drug treatment, only shown to a prison cell. Every time she was released, pushed out onto the streets unable to find work, no housing, often sleeping on the streets, cycling in and out of our prison system for 15 years until by no small miracle she was granted access to a private drug treatment facility. She got clean and was given a job. And she decided that she was going to dedicate the rest of her life to insuring that no other woman would have to go through what she went through. And she began by going down to skid row in los angeles and meeting women prisoners as they would get off the prison bus on skid row. Get off the bus carrying nothing but a cardboard boxcar riing their belongings, little or no money, turned out on the street. And she would say to these women who were strangers to her, just come home with me. You can sleep on my couch, you dont have to turn to the streets. Ill take care of you. Ill give you to food, ill give you a safe place. Just come home with me. Susan burton now i runs now runs five safe homes for women in los angeles, women released from prison. Her organization is called a new way of life. She prides help finding jobs, housing, helps to reunite women with their families, and beyond that she is organizing formerlyincarcerated people to demand the restoration of their basic civil and human rights. Clearly, clearly susan has caught up to king. But what about the rest of us . Now, what i have to say on this point will not be popular. It is not the sunny, cheerful message that is expected on the day after we inaugurated for the second time our nations first black president. But i believe it to be the truth, and it implicates me, and it implicates everyone in this room. And the truth is this we have allowed a human rights nightmare to occur on our watch. In the years since dr. Kings death, a vast new system of racial and social control has emerged from the ashes of slavery and jim crow. A system of mass incarceration that no doubt has dr. King turn anything his grave turning in his grave today. The mass incarceration of poor people of color in the United States is tantamount to a new castelike system, one that shuttles our young people from decrepit, underfunded schools to brand new hightech prisons. It is a system that locks poor people, overwhelmingly poor people of color, into a permanent secondclass status nearly as effectively as earlier systems of racial and social control once did. It is, in my view, the moral equivalent of jim crow. Now, i am always eager to admit that there was a time when i rejected this kind of talk out of hand. There was a time when i rejected comparisons between mass incarceration and slavery and mass incarceration and jim crow believing that those kinds of claims and comparisons were exaggerations, were distortions, were hyperbole. In fact, there was a time when i thought that people who made those kinds of claims and those kinds of comparisons were actually doing more harm than good to efforts to reform our criminal Justice System and achieve greater racial equality in the United States. But what a difference a decade makes. For after years of working as a civil rights lawyer and advocate representing victims of racial profiling and Police Brutality and investigating patterns of Drug Law Enforcement in poor communities of color and attempting to assist people who have been released from prison enter into a society which had never shown much use for them in the first place, i had a series of experiences that began what i now call my awakening. I began to awaken to a racial reality that is just so obvious to me now that what seems odd in retrospect is that i could have been blind to it for so long. As i write in the introduction to my book, the new jim crow, what has changed since the collapse of jim crow has less to do with the basic structure of of our society than the language we use to justify it. In the era of color blindness, it is no longer socially permissible to use race explicitly as a justification for discrimination, exclusion and southerly contempt. Social contempt. So we dont. Rather than rely on race, we use our criminal Justice System to label people of color criminals and then engage in all the practices that we supposedly left behind. Today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all the ways in which it was once legal to discriminate against africanamericans. Once youre labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, exclusion from jury service suddenly legal. As a criminal, you have scarcely more rights and arguably less respect than a black man living in alabama at the height of jim crow. We have not ended racial caste in america, we have merely redesigned it. Now, for those who might think thats overstating the case, consider this there are more africanamerican adults under correctional control today in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the civil war began. As of 2004, more black men were disenfranchised than in 1870, the year the 15th amendment was ratified, police sitly denying the right to vote implicitly denying the right to vote. The 15th amendment prohibited all laws, explicitly denied the right to vote. But during the jim crow era, poll taxes and literacy tests circumvented the 15th amendment and operated to deny africanamericans a chance to vote. Well, today in many states felon disenfranchisement laws accomplish what poll taxes and literacy tests ultimately could not. Now, this doesnt affect just some small segment of the africanamerican community. To the contrary, in many large urban areas today more than half of workingage africanamerican men now have criminal records and are, thus, subject to legalized discrimination for the rest of their lives. In fact, in some cities like chicago, baltimore, philadelphia, d. C. , the list could go on, in some cities the statistics are far worse. In fact, it was reported in chicago that if you take into account prisoners, if you actually count prisoners as people and keep in mind that prisoners are excluded from poverty statistics and unemployment data, thus masking the severity of racial inequality in the United States. But if you actually count prisoners as people in the chicago area, nearly 80 of workingage africanamerican men, criminal records, thus subject to legalized discrimination for the rest of their lives. These men are part of a growing undercaste. Not class, caste. A group of people defined largely by race relegated to a permanent secondclass us the by law. Status by law. Now, i find today that when i tell people that i now find mass incarceration like jim crow, people act with complete disbelief. They say how can you say that . How can you say that . Our criminal Justice System isnt a system of racial control, its a system of crime control, and if black folks would just stop running around committing so many crimes, we wouldnt have to corps ri about worry about being locked up and then stripped of their civil rights. Well, therein lies the greatest myth about mass incarceration, namely that its been driven by crime and crime rates. The its not true. Its just not true. Our prison population quintupled in the space of 30 years, quintupled. We have gone from a prison population of about 300,000 to an incarcerated population now of over two million. We have the highest rate of incarceration in the world dwarfing the rates of even highly repressive regimes like russia or china or iran. But again, this cant be explained simply by crime or crime rates. No. No. During that same period of time that our incarceration rates increased exponentially, crime rates fluctuated; went up, went down, went back up again, went down again. And today as bad as crime rates are in many parts of the country, nationally crime rates are at historical lows. But incarceration rates have consistently soared. Mostnologists and sociologists today will acknowledge that crime rates and incarceration rates in the United States have moved independently of one another. Especially black incarceration rates have soared regardless of whether crime is going up or down in any Given Community or nation as a whole. So what explains this sudden explosion in incarceration . The birth of a penal system unprecedented in World History . If not crime and crime rates . Well, the answer is the war on drugs and the get tough movement. The wave of punitiveness that that washed over the United States. Drug convictions alone, just drug convictions, accounted for about twothirds of the increase in the federal prison system and more than half of the increase in the state prison system between 1985 and 2000, a period of the greatest expansion of our prison system. To get a sense of how large a contribution the war on drugs has made to mass incarceration, consider this there are more people in prisons and jails today just for drug offenses than for all reasons in 1980. Now, most americans violate drug laws in some form in their lifetime. Most do. But the enemy in this war not by accident this drug war has been waged almost exclusively in communities of chlorine communities of color. People of color do not use or sell Illegal Drugs at higher rates than whites or sell. Now, that defies our basic racial stereotypes about who a drug dealerrer is. Who do you see . Theres actually been studies asking that particular question. In the mid 1990s a National Survey was conducted asking people to close their eyes and imagine a drug criminal and report what they saw. Over 95 of respondents pictured someone africanamerican. Only 5 pictured someone of any other racial or ethnic group. So we think of drug criminals in the United States, typically think of people who are black and brown. But studies have consistently shown that people of all races use and sell drugs at remarkably similar rates. And, in fact, where significant differences in the data can be found, some studies suggest that white youth are more likely to engage in illegal drug dealing than black youth. But thats not what you would guess by taking a peek inside our nations prisons and jails which are overflowing with black and brown drug offenders. In some states 8090 of all drug offenders sent to prison have been one race, africanamerican. Now, i know that many people who see this data say, oh, yeah, a shame. Thats a shame. But, you know, we need to get tough on them, those folks. In the hood. Because thats where the violent offenders can be found. Thats where the drug kingpins can be found. Well, maybe people dont realize, though, is this drug war has never been aimed primarily at rooting out the violent offenders or the drug kingpins, no. Federal funding has flowed in this war to those state and local Law Enforcement agencies that boost the sheer numbers of drug arrests. Its been a numbers game. Law enforcement agencies have been rewarded in cash for the sheer numbers of people swept into the system for drug offenses which helps to explain why so Many Police Officers go out looking for the socalled low hanging fruit; stopping, frisking, searching, tossing as many people as possible in an effort to get their numbers up. And the results are typical. People of color in math for nonviolent threats. In 2005 for example four of five for simple possession, one out of five or six, people in business have no history of violence or even significant selling activities and in the 1990s a period of the greatest escalation, nearly 80 of the increase for marijuana possession. It was shown to be addictive more than alcohol or tobacco and at least if not more prevalent, middleclass white commodities, College Campuses. And waging this war. And is under tasks, and where has the u. S. Supreme court been in all of this. Where has the Supreme Court been . Far from protecting the interests of the street, far from doing that the u. S. Supreme court is busy defending this, u. S. Supreme court over the last couple decades has been even separated for First Amendment protections against infeasible searches and seizures granting to the police the authority to stop, frisk, search just about anyone, anywhere, without any probable cause or reasonable suspicion, not a shred of business as long as they get expensive. Police officer walks of 2 young man, and says put your arms in the air. Fat young man waved his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures, doesnt have to have a shred of evidence. And had no ability to refuse. These were isolated instances. And adding up to enormous Racial Disparities in your Police Department reported in one year alone, just one year alone, stop and frisk more than 600,000 people. Overwhelmingly black and brown men. The Supreme Court has ruled we cannot challenge these Racial Disparities in accord of lobbies in a series of cases, armstrong versus the United States the Supreme Court has ruled explicitly that it doesnt matter how overwhelming the statistical evidence might be, it does not matter how severe the Racial Disparities are unless you can offer proof of conscious, intentional bias, cant admit to a lawenforcement official, you cant even state acclaim for racial bias in the criminal Justice System today. So many of the racial profiling cases i was litigating ten years ago need to be filed today. The u. S. Supreme court has exposed the courthouse doors, claims that racial bias at every stage of the criminal justice process from stocks to searches to plead bargaining and in so many ways the u. S. Supreme court has effectively immunized the system of mass incarceration from judicial scrutiny, racial bias in the same way the Supreme Court once rallied to the defense of slavery and again to the defense of jim crow in earlier eras. Of course being swept into the system with little hope of being able to challenge the bias or tactics that got you there is just the beginning. For so many. Once you have been swept in and branded a criminal war felon you have a shooting to a parallel social universe in which the Civilrights Movement along replies. You may be denied the right to vote for period of years or the rest of your life depending on states. You are deemed ineligible for jury service for the rest of your life. For the rest of your life discrimination in employment would not only be legal but routine. You would be forced to check the box on Employment Application asking the dreaded question have you ever been convicted of a felony. It doesnt matter if the felony happened a few weeks ago, it you months ago or 45 years ago. For the rest of your life you have to check that box knowing full well many people say come on, stop making excuses for people. When you get out of prison is hard, it is tough but if you try hard, if you really work at it, put yourself out there, you can get a job, you can get a job at mcdonalds or burger king. Getting a job at mcdonalds is no easy feat if you have a felony record. Housing discrimination perfectly legal. Public housing projects and private landlords free to discriminate against you, discrimination and Public Benefits legal. Under federal law you are deemed ineligible even for food stamps for the rest of your life if convicted of a drug felony. Many states have opted out of the federal ban on food stamps. Still the case, people cant even get food stamps to feed themselves. People released from prison are expected to do . Cant get a job. Cant get housing. Even food stamps might be up. What you expected to do . Apparently you are expected to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees, fines, court costs, accumulated back Child Support which continues to accrue when you are in prison and a growing number of states you are expected to payback the cost of your imprisonment and payback these fees, fines, accumulated childsupport, it will be a condition of your equation and get this. If you are one of the lucky few, the very few and manages to get a job right out of prison, not 100 of your wages could be garnished, hundred and to payback those fees, fines from childsupport. What do people expect to do . Do we take a step back from this, take a step back and see the impoverished, underfunded students, the children were hounded by the great scott, when theyre old enough to drive their cars pulled over. When they are swept in for committing some usually relatively minor crime, usually some relatively minor crime, the very sorts of crimes with roughly equal frequency and middleclass White Communities or College Campuss that are largely ignored can you are ushered into this parallel social universe, unable to work, find shelter or food. What does this system seemed designed for people . Seems it is designed which is what happens to the vast majority of the time. 70 of people released from prison, the majority of those return in a matter of months because the challenges our survival on the outside. Why did we choose this path . How did we get ourselves here all these years after dr. King has passed away . It is clear to me that in the years since dr. Kings death our nation was faced with a choice. We could continue down the path dr. King was traveling, the path of compassion, forgiveness, inclusion and hope. We could choose the path of the poor peoples movement, we could join him in the revolution of values he prayed for. Or we could take a different road, a road more familiar when it comes to matters of race, the road of exclusion division, punitive this and despair. One day i believe historians will look back on this era of mass incarceration and say it was fair, right there at the prison gates, that we abandoned dr. Kings dream and took a dramatic uturn, a uturn that would lead millions of people permanently locked up and locked out. We have now spent 1 trillion waging the drug war. 1 trillion. Funds that could have been used for education, job creation, drug treatment, constantly being told there is not enough money to pay teachers, not enough money for class, small class sizes, not enough money for jobs programs for you, not enough money, not enough money. Apparently we had 1 trillion. We decided to spend it rather than on education or job creation we decided to spend it building a prison system unlike anything the world has ever known. So what do we do . What do we do now . My own view is nothing short of a major social movement has any hope of ending mass incarceration and inspiring a recommitment to dr. Kings dream. If you think that sounds extreme, that surely something less will do now, consider this. If we were to return to the raise incarceration we had in the 1970s or early 1980s before the war on drugs truly kickoff, we would release four of five people who are in prison, of five, more than a Million People employed by the criminal Justice System would be defined a new line, most new prison construction has occurred predominately white rural communities, communities that have been sold and added to economic woes, leave the source for jobs, desperately needed jobs, and very often prisons are advertise providing far more benefits than they actually deliver but nonetheless so many believe their economies depend on it. Those prisons would have to close down. Private Prison Companies listed on the Stock Exchange doing quite well even at a time of economic recession, those companies would be forced to debate, this system of mass incarceration is so deeply rooted in social, political and economic structure that is not going to just fade away, without major upkeep, fairly radical shift in public consciousness. There are many people today who will say there is no hope of ending mass incarceration in america, theres no hope. Just as many people were resigned to jim crow in the south and would say yes, yes, that is a shame, but just the way that is. So many people today use the millions cycling in and out of prisons and jails today, just an unfortunate but on alterable fact of american life. Make certain that dr. King would not have been so resigned. To truly honored dr. King, if we were ever to catch up with dr. King we have got to be willing to continue his work. We have got to be willing to go back, pick up where he left off and do the hard work of Movement Building on behalf of poor people. In 1968 dr. King told us the time to transition from a Civilrights Movement to humanrights movement. Meaningful authority could not be achieved through civil rights alone without basic human rights, the right to work, the right to shelter, the right to quality education, basic human rights, he said civilrights are an empty promise. In honor of dr. King and all those who labor to end the old jim crow i hope we commit ourselves to building a Human Rights Movement to end mass incarceration. A movement for education, not incarceration. Movement for jobs, a movement to end all these forms of discrimination, discrimination that denies them basic human rights, to work, to shelter, to food. What must we do to begin this movement . First i believe we have got to begin by telling the truth, the whole truth. We have got to be willing to admit outloud the we as a nation have managed to recreate a system in this country that in our churches and places of worship, behind bars in every intersection. And a great awakening, the reality of what has occurred can come to pass because the reality isnt that this new system, there are no whites only signs anymore, no signs alerting us to the existence of the system of mass incarceration. In prison today they are out of sight and out of mind, hundreds of miles away, communities and families, and people cycle in and out of these prisons, segregated, impoverished communities, communities middleclass, uppermiddleclass folks rarely come across so you can live your full life in America Today having no idea that this system of mass incarceration and the harm it reeks even exists. We have got to be willing to tell the truth, pull back the curtain and make visible what isnt in plain sight so that an awakening can begin and people can begin to take the kind of creative, constructive action this moment in our history requires. Of course it is just a lot of talk. We have got to be willing to get to work. In my view that means we have to be willing to build an underground railroad, an underground railroad for people who want to make a genuine break for real freedom, people who want to escape this system and find work, find shelter, be able to support their families, find true freedom in America Today. We have got to be willing to open our homes, our schools, our work places to people returning from prison, for the families who have loved ones behind bars today. How do we create the safe places . One thing we can certainly do, we can begin to admit our own criminality out loud, our own criminality because the truth is we have all made mistakes in our lives. We all have. All of us are sinners, all of us have gone wrong, all of us have broken the law at some point in our lives. If you are an adult you have broken the law at some point. Some people say oh yes . I am a sinner, i made mistakes but dont call me a criminal, dont call me a criminal, okay, maybe you never drank underage, maybe you never experimented with drugs, or the worst thing you have done in your entire life is speed ten miles over the speed limit on the freeway, you put yourself and others at more risk of harm than someone smoking marijuana in the privacy of their living room. There are people in the United States serving life sentences for firsttime drug offenses, the Supreme Court upheld life sentences for firsttime against an eighth amendment challenge that sentences were cruel and unusual and violation of the eighth amendment and the Supreme Court said it is not cruel and unusual punishment to sentence the young man to life imprisonment for firsttime drug offense, virtually no other country in the world does such a thing. We have to end this idea that the criminals, not us, and instead say there but for the grace of god, all of us have made mistakes in our lives, taken wrong turns, but only some of us are required to pay for those mistakes with the rest of our lives. President barack obama himself has admitted to more than a little bit of drug use in his lifetime. He has admitted to using marijuana and cocaine. If he hadnt been raised by white grandparents in hawaii, if he hadnt done much of his illegal drug use on White College campuses and universities, if he had been raised in the hood, he would have been stopped, he would have been frisked, you would have been searched, he would have been caught and far from being president of the United States today he might not even have the right to vote. We have got to recognize that building this movement is about insuring the future of all of us. The chances of all of our young people, so we can all dream big dreams enjoying in this progress of being american, this is a movement we must fill on behalf of all of us. Is not about us, the people we imagine. But of course building an underground railroad and creating safe spaces isnt going to be enough either just because in the days of slavery wasnt enough to chablis few to freedom one by one on the underground railroad. Wont be enough for us to open our hearts and minds to a few one by one. We have to work for abolition. That means working for abolition of the system of mass incarceration and that means ending the war on drugs once and for all, ending. We must shift to a Public Health model for dealing with drug addiction, drug abuse, and stop investing billions of dollars locking people up in prisons and jails sells rather than investing in education and drug treatment and job creation in the communities that need it most. We have got to end all these forms of legal discrimination against people released from prison, that denies them basic human rights to work, shelter, food, and last but not least we have got to shift from a punitive approach to dealing with violence and Violent Crime in our communities to more rehabilitative and restorative climate that takes the interest of the victim, the offender and the community as a whole, we have a lot of work to do. If it seems like too much, it seems it cant possibly be done, keep in mind all these rules, laws, politics and practices that constitute this system of mass incarceration, it is on one core beliefs and the same belief that sustained jim crow, the belief that some of us, some of us are not worthy of genuine care, compassion, concern. And we have effectively challenged that, a multiracial, multiethnic, a humanrights Movement Must be borne, one that is rooted in the awareness of dignity and humanity of all people and it has got to be multiracial and multiethnic because although the war on drugs may have been born with black folks it is a war that has destroyed the lives of people and communities of our country. We see the same tough rhetoric and divisive racial politics that help to give birth to the drug war, now leading to another, aimed at suspected illegal immigrants. We have got to be willing to connect the dots and build a multiracial, multiethnic humanrights movement on behalf of all of us, and before this movement can truly get underway, great awakening is required. We have got to awaken from this colorblind slumber we have been in to the realities of america, and we have got to be willing to embrace those labeled criminals, not necessarily their behavior, but theyre human this so it is the refusal land barrier to recognize the dignity and humanity of all people, it has been a Sturdy Foundation for every cast system that has ever existed in the United States or anywhere else in the world. It is our task to firmly end mass incarceration, not just the war on drugs but to end this history and cycle of cast and america, then and only then can we say with pride that we are finally catching up with Martin Luther king. Thank you for having me tonight, thank you. [applause] [applause] okay. Take a moment here, going to take some questions. Of folks want to ask questions we have the microphone over here and over there. Come and line up and ask some questions. Are there any questions for morsi . Michelle alexander . You have made a believer out of me. Interestingly, i hear our incarceration rates are higher than what north korea reports. A world leader. A world leader in prison. My question is among non drugrelated incarcerations is there still racial violence . There are racial biases at every stage of the criminal justice process and some of this bond jumped out, and got anything on them. But good intentions. And keep the neighborhood save. The same officer received, and not jump out of his car on the pavement, frisking them. That officer may not hold any evil intent to those young black men. What those unconscious biases about who looks like a criminal or seems up to no good, played over and over again, hundreds of thousands of times, adding up to these disparities and the same is true with prosecutors, there are studies in the San Jose Mercury news for example showing prosecutors display considerable bias in making charges about who seems like they should be given a good deal, who is worthy of a Second Chance, who seems like a tough kid who cant be turned around . These unconscious biases play themselves out and all kinds of crimes and types of offenses, but when we talk about Violent Crime important to acknowledge, and rates of Violent Crime are much higher among black men than white men. Rates of Violent Crime are much higher but as William Julius wilson points out in his excellent book when work disappears, Racial Disparities and Violent Crimes disappear, when you control joblessness. If you compare white jobless with black jobless men the Racial Disparity in Violent Crime disappears. That doesnt mean joblessness is an excuse for violence, it certainly is not. And most do not engage in Violent Crime but the reality is joblessness, particularly john at chronic joblessness creates the very conditions we know that will give rise to violence and place people at risk of violence but we have created a system that guarantees that certain population defined by race and class will be perpetual the jobless, will be locked out of the legal economy and do all of this in the name of safety so we have a system of mass incarceration that exist supposedly to make us all safer and yet it insures enormous population will be locked out of employment, locked out of housing, trapped in a perpetual undercast and expressed surprise of the rates of violence and other crimes are higher in those communities and in fact we have to ask ourselves why would we create the very conditions we know are likely to create violence . Why we so willing to invest in building prisons rather than job creation and education . The very things we know are the ingredients of healthy, for writing, state and caring communities. Is important to recognize the ways in which bias plays out, all these discretionary decisions made throughout the system but also plays out in how we as a nation invest our resources and who we are willing to treat as disposable and who we view as having a future, deserving of the kind of resources that will ensure them a path of meaningful opportunity. That answers my question. I have a quick question, you say we need a revolution. My thing is during the year of jim crow you notice the Financial Hardship of creating separate but equal kind of helped to bring down the system of jim crow. Started writing laws that america couldnt find separate but equal in all of the schools how her with this year of mass incarceration with economic kind of things we could use to break down the system, that was kind of like this has added because people are getting paid off of this and money is getting put into it so how can we hit them in their pockets kind of thing . Good question. It is important first to emphasize that jim crow didnt collapse because it was too expensive to provide equal Educational Opportunity for black folks as compared to whites, there was no effort to try to provide equal Educational Opportunities for black folks as compared to whites. What led to the collapse of jim crow had a lot to do with how the United States was being viewed in the aftermath of world war ii when black service men were returning home from fighting for Freedom Abroad and returning home to suffer a secondclass status and being hung from trees in the south and the events were being broadcast around world, tarnishing as leader of the free world and standing up against tyranny and jim crow collapse because of a Mass Movement that arose, shook the foundation of the system itself. But i agree with you that we can weaken the foundations of any system of controlled by challenging its economic base and that is one of the strategies that led to the collapse of apartheid in south africa. The Divestment Movement urging universities to divest, corporations to divest from south africa, it scared the daylights out of the South African government as they feared investment being pulled from their country and outrage over the apartheid system that existed there and there are young people today who are talking about divestments strategies in the iraq of mass incarceration, divesting from private prisons, and just announced, they decided to divest the, and what are they doing investing in the first place. They church is investing pension and mutualfund. Very often we dont know what companys mutualfund are invested in. Private prisons have become very profitable and so many investment portfolios have included private prisons as one of the Profitable Companies that any institution not to invest in and so you can wonder, is this institution that we are invested in, i dont know. What churches are invested have funds, a Divestment Campaign urging universities, churches to divest from private prisons directly from many mutualfund or pension plan that has even one penny invested in private prisons can be very helpful in crippling, more portly it can be a tool for raising consciousness, raising awareness of the system of mass incarceration as a whole. I will be fewer than one in ten prisoners are held in private prisons, so even if we got rid of private prisons we would still have a system of mass incarceration today, but those divestments campaigns can help raise consciousness and can be an important part of Movement Building as well as boycotting companies that will not hire people with criminal records. There have been a number of companies that have courageously said we are going to give people a fair shot at employment and if we begin to celebrate and honor those companies while publicizing those companies that wont give people a chance at an interview, a chance at getting in the door, that can be Something Else that helps to raise consciousness and contribute to Movement Building but ultimately i dont believe this movement should be about dollars and cents. Ultimately we have got to find a way to build a new moral consensus, and build on the work dr. King was doing, force all of us to reckon with what we have done and inspired genuine care, compassion, concern for the least advantaged in our society so what you are describing can be part of that but we can reduce the movement. In your book you mentioned several judgees to have given up their reports, who have resigned because of harsh sentences they are expected to give to drug offenders. Have any of those judges informed as leaders, any of them said my experience, give me a perspective, give me a sounding board where i can lead people to some of this revolution . Theres a wonderful organization i would recommend people to check out which is called Law Enforcement against prohibition. And entirely of judges, prosecutors, police officers, police chiefs, who believe the drug war has caused fast more harm than prohibition itself. These are people who spend their lives, their careers as drug warriors and have come to the conclusion that the harm caused by the drug war so vastly outweighed by any potential benefits that has to be abandoned in its entire the so you check out the web site, a lot of great resources, and the like that really feature important voices in the Law Enforcement Community Calling for change. Thanks for pointing to us. Grown up a 4man, i was sitting here thinking about how fortunate i am not to be in the system, but also have some acquainted people i do know in the system, sorted by states and you wonder these are good people, how do we determine now, you spoke on fabrication, and put in a criminal years i have been in prison, how do we get a Second Chance . My heart really heard for that one particular guy who is a great guy, made a very serious mistake. He caught up with the person, the person who made the mistake and offered them the prize. How do we turn this around to give this person a Second Chance . I am a supporter of bandbox initiatives. Than the box back campaigns that have been successful. In number of cities and jurisdictions to remove the box on Employment Applications asking have you ever been convicted of a felony. I believe the city of philadelphia has removed that question from all city employments, a number of jurisdictions around the country. Cities, counties that embraced the ban the box movement and have removed the box from Employment Applications. Employers may then still consider prior criminal history, what removing the box does is gives the chance to ed meese get an interview, at least get their foot in the door so that they can make their case that they deserve a chance and whatever mistakes they may have made in the past do not bear upon the current job they are being asked to perform or that they are well beyond the type of activity that landed them in jail in the first place everyone should have that shot. And people convicted of drug offenses there a deposition that i think is unfair, those who drink alcohol regularly work with who are alcoholics. People with alcohol problems, whose struggle with alcoholism dont check any boxes, theres no background checks that reveal their history unless they have been caught in a d y or Something Like that so my own view is people who have some kind of drug related conviction these other types of things that shouldnt be held against people because they happen to be caught. They are vastly higher that you might get caught if you are a poor person living in a ghetto community as opposed to someone on a College Campus engage in that activity and everyone thinks theyre just being kids and they will grow out of it, i think we have to be very careful about the extent to which we view criminal convictions as relevant to a particular type of job that people are applying for today and i support a very strong antidiscrimination position against people who have prior criminal records, directly relevant to the type of job. How are you doing . I want to thank you for coming and one of my questions is, my question is for a student or anybody else in the crowd who want to be more involved, the protection of this movement, what can we do other than informing other people what is actually going on and doing more research ourselves, to be active in that movement . One thing you can do is think of forming a students against mass incarceration on campus, these groups have been forming on numerous College Campuses and universities around the country, and theres one at howard and columbia and growing and you can go to my web site for Contact Information about who to contact about an adjoining effort and linking up with other student groups around the country who are wrestling with exactly the same question of how can young people play a meaningful role and take some leadership in building the movement to mass incarceration and on a website i listed bunch of resources and organizations you can consider contacting, you can begin to work with, and shoes and if theyre doing work locally, but i really do think the priorities, consciousness raising, working towards supporting people as their release from prison so finding out what other Reentry Centers and what forms of support could be provided and all so getting to work with organizations like the drug policy alliance, and many other organizations that are operating nationally to repeals harsh drug laws that exist here in this age and other states to get involved in ban the box initiatives, repeal, bans on food stamps, and all the types of things i described, there are people undoubtedly have done locally, and to think seriously about forming your own organization. One of the things that worries me most about this point is that we are in in building the movement is there really is no Grass Roots Organization that exists today at a National Level that has as its primary mission end the system of mass incarceration. Some of the work that needs to be done may not have begun in your community. But who is going to do this work if not you, us. I encourage you to check out resources, think about forming around Student Organization and also get together with likeminded souls and think seriously about the organizations that need to be built perhaps in your own community to do that. Thank you for your question. I thank you for your presentation. Very insightful. The question i would like to ask is overall. Many Young Persons tend two level charges against them. And and conspiracy for jobs. And a barber of mine in jamaica who was deported according to that conspiracy is one of the hardest charges to beach. What solutions to you propose . I dont know, to remove such a charge because of conspiracy, can be applied in such a broadway. Thank you for raising that question. Many people dont realize until you are charged as part of the conspiracy, something as simple as passing messages to someone, so and so called, he wants you to meet him there, you need a ride, i will give you a lift, you may have some vague sense of what is going on or maybe you dont really know what is going on but the prosecution sure things you do. And it takes one act in support of the conspiracy and an overt act when someone arrives, it can be passing messages, it can be something extremely minor, many women find themselves charged as coconspirators because the prosecutors are really after their boyfriend or their husband or some man that they know who they think is involved in drug conspiracy and charge them as a coconspirator in order to try to get in to snatch on their friends or loved one and unfortunately many women who either dont actually have the knowledge to be able to snitch or because of their own conscience wont allow themselves to snitch on someone they care about, find themselves doing far more time than the person who is charged as a principal in the crime so these conspiracy laws are very dangerous and unjust and ought to be changed and conspiracy laws laws and insist that led a would be remiss if i did not talk about my cognitive dissidence regarding this subject so i guess i am thinking about this possibly should be a black community discussion, there is still this notion of personal accountability that i am thinking about and my question is does that play a role on this Mass Incarceration Movement because i have a lot of family members and friends who know better and continue to do that and make bad decisions and dont hold themselves accountable and so part of me is still struggling with how do we balance the act of the external things versus the internal so those personal accountability player role in this and how do you deal with that . Excellent question. And i think personal accountability plays a role, we have to take responsibility for the choices we make in our lives, we also have to take choices, take responsibility for the choices we make collectively. It seems to me that we have been willing to eat an enormous amount of shame and blame on the poorest, the most vulnerable in our society. And accept no responsibility collectively for having set people up to fail and keeping them trapped so yes. Of course. Everyone has got to take responsibility for their own actions. There is absolutely a role for personal accountability and conversation but we have got to expand the conversation beyond personal accountability and ask the question you have made a mistake, now what . The reality is people of all colors make mistakes and we make many of the same kinds of mistakes, but some people are punished so harshly and in an unrelenting fashion and some people who make the same mistakes like barack obama go off to college, go to law school and get to the president of the United States so i think we have really got to be willing to look at the kinds of mistakes people make with an open heart and open mind and make choices about how we respond to those mistakes in a way that honors their humanity and dignity and is based in awareness that as a society we need to be safe and honor peoples basic human rights to live in a community that is safe and secure, a child growing up in a crimeridden Violent Community who has to worry about bullets flying through the air, how humanrights are being violated because we have not provided a safe, secure environment, we have told me to us individually accountable and do so in a way. And assures that we create in caring communities but we cant simply resort to shame and blame and get caught up in the punitive ness that makes us less safe and ultimately denies the basic humanity of those we claim to care about. I thank you for bringing this presentation earlier in the country. Especially in this area. I have an area of concern but i like the progress you have taken, like a root cause of knowledge that caused the mass of incarceration of so many africanamericans any use data and statistics to lay out. My question has to do with where is the africanamerican churches lana comes to getting involved. What has happened to them . We seem to run from data. We run from root cause analysis. We seem to just become so lackadaisical in this area. What would you recommend to the churches and the Church Leaders which we should be doing . Skype i agree that people of faith and conscience have such an extraordinarily Important Role to play at this moment in our nations history at a time when so many people of faith including myself, we claim to carol lot about compassion and forgiveness. We claim, we talk a good game but when it comes to being willing to stand up against these in justices, for too long too many people of faith and confidence remained silent. I am encouraged, in recent years faith leaders are waking up and standing up and progress of black churches ending making incarceration one of their primary missions. For the foreseeable future, they actually created a faith based study guide for my book, to be used in congregations and awareness and encourage people to explore the relationship between their faith and spiritual commitments and will we see in this era of mass incarceration and find their prophetic voice in this time of crisis, and so there is movement afoot within faith communities, pico is a multiracial, multiethnic faith based social Justice Organization that is now embracing ending mass incarceration as one of their main goals, there is change in shifting attitudes to be seen in the community but i couldnt agree with you more, much more work needs to be done and ultimately being the worlds leader in prison, subject in them if that is not a moral issue, a spiritual crisis to which the church ought to speak and respond i dont know what is. I hope people like you will encourage faith leaders do you know in your circles, to begin to speak up and speak out with some courage. Last question. My name is jamie, my question was similar. I understand how you said organizations into colleges might help but i think the most powerful thing right now is the media. How do we get like you dont see many black people together to help young black people find the truth and we have struggled to find the truth because so many other things are going on in the media and by wonder how you feel. That is an excellent point. If you are to watch mainstream news or Mainstream Media today you are not going to learn anything useful about the system of mass incarceration. Cough it is important for people to become a very creative about educating their communities and