Reading Reflection #5.docx - Nhat Anh Ngo Dan PHIL 102...

Nhat Anh Ngo Dan
PHIL 102: Moral Problems
Professor McKiernan
April 25, 2018
Reading Reflection #5: The New Jim Crow ’s “The New Jim Crow”
“When black youth find it difficult or impossible to live up to these standards–or when they fail,
stumble, and make mistakes, as all humans do–shame and blame is heaped upon them
.
If only
they had made different choices, they’re told sternly, they wouldn’t be sitting in a jail cell; they’d
be graduating from college
.
Never mind that white children on the other side of town who made
precisely the same choices–often for less compelling reasons–are in fact going to college” (215)
.
In chapter five, “The New Jim Crow,” Alexander discusses the commonly held
assumption that black men are often thought “absent” within the black community
.
The most
obvious explanation, the mass incarceration of African-American males, is seldom invoked
.
Within this context, it is probable and somewhat reasonable that racial progress is often