374 Quotes by Michelle Alexander
- Author Michelle Alexander
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Suburban white youth may deal drugs to their friends and acquaintances as a form of recreation and extra cash, but for ghetto youth, drug sales—though rarely lucrative—are often a means of survival, a means of helping to feed and clothe themselves and their families.
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- Author Michelle Alexander
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The petition argued that the Court's decision was a dire mistake; if the decision were allowed to stand and prosecutors were compelled to explain gross racial disparities such as the ones at issue, it would...'paralyze the criminal justice system'—apparently because severe and inexplicable racial disparities pervaded the system as a whole.
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- Author Michelle Alexander
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Rather than shaming and condemning an already deeply stigmatized group, we, collectively, can embrace them–not necessarily their behavior, but them–their humanness.
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- Author Michelle Alexander
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Subjecting people to stops and searches because they live in "high crime" ghettos cannot be said to be truly race-neutral, given that the ghetto itself was constricted to contain and control groups of people defined by race
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- Author Michelle Alexander
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Because the Supreme Court has authorized the police to use race as a factor when making decisions regarding whom to stop and search, police departments believe that racial profiling exists only when race is the sole factor...The problem is that although race is rarely the sole reason for a stop or search, it is frequently a determinative reason.
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- Author Michelle Alexander
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1 in every 14 black men was behind bars in 2006, compared with 1 I'm 106 white men
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- Author Michelle Alexander
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The stark and sobering reality is that, for reasons largely unrelated to actual crime trends, the American penal system has emerged as a syste of social control unparalleled in world history.
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- Author Michelle Alexander
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Most prosecutors' offices lack any manual or guidebook advising prosecutors how to make discretionary decisions. Even the American Bar Association's standards of practice for prosecutors are purely aspirational; no prosecutor is required to follow the standards or even consider them.
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- Author Michelle Alexander
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The Supreme Court has gone to great lengths to ensure that prosecutors are free to exercise their discretion in any manner they choose, and it has closes the courthouse doors to claims of racial bias.
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