Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (New York: The New Press, Revised Edition, 2012)

We like to think that we have moved beyond the overt racism of previous generations, but the reality is that race still makes a huge difference when it comes to opportunity in our country. Michelle Alexander’s well-researched and complex argument certainly opened my eyes. It also made me to some checking about my home state of South Dakota where a disproportionate percentage of Native Americans are incarcerated. The war on drugs has done little to curb the use of drugs, but it has done a great deal to place families at risk and to keep whole groups of Americans in permanent poverty. This book should be required reading for all legislators.

I highly recommend this book. My copy is going to be donated to our church library in the hopes that more people will read it and become aware of its challenging and frightening conclusions.