Smithfield Critics Book Discussion Group

The Smithfield Critics meet at 12:00 pm on the third Wednesday of each month.

This month’s selection is:

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

In a bold and innovative argument, Michelle Alexander shows readers how the mass incarceration of a disproportionate number of black men amounts to a devastating system of racial control. This is a terrifying reality that exists in the UK as much as in the US. Despite the triumphant dismantling of the Jim Crow laws, the system that once forced African-Americans into a segregated second-class citizenship still haunts. The criminal justice system still unfairly targets black men and deprives an entire segment of the population of their basic rights.