Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. makes his readers an unusual offer. He says that he will send 50 of them a free, autographed copy of The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. The book turns the spotlight on a racial caste system that is "nearly as restrictive, oppressive and omnipresent as Jim Crow itself," Pitts writes.
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This [is] because, although white Americans are far and away the nationโs biggest dealers and users of illegal drugs, African Americans are far and away the ones most likely to be jailed for drug crimes. And when they are set โfreeโ after doing their time, black men enter a legal purgatory where the right to vote, work, go to school or rent an apartment can be legally denied. Itโs as if George Wallace were still standing in the schoolhouse door.
The New Jim Crow won several awards, enjoyed significant media attention, and was an apparent catalyst in the NAACPโs decision last year to call for an end to the drug war. The book was a sensation, but we need it to be more. We need it to be a movement.
As it happens and not exactly by coincidence, Alexanderโs book is being reissued in paperback this week as we mark the birthday of the man who led Americaโs greatest mass movement for social justice. In his battle against the original Jim Crow, Martin Luther King, in a sense, did what Alexander seeks to do: pour sunlight on an onerous condition that exists just beyond the periphery of most Americansโ sight.
I want to help her do that. So hereโs the deal. Iโll give you a copy of the book โ autographed by the author, no less โ free of charge. You donโt even have to pay for shipping. All you have to do is tell me you want it and promise me youโll read it.ย
Read Leonard Pitts Jr.'s entire column at the Miami Herald.ย
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