2012-2013 Common Read: The New Jim Crow

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander (The New Press) was selected as the 2012-13 Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Common Read. Alexander, an attorney who is a civil rights advocate and litigator, asserts that crime-fighting policies and systems in the U.S., such as the “war on drugs” and the incarceration system, disproportionately and intentionally affect Americans of color. She describes multifaceted, lifelong discrimination and disenfranchisement that affect people who are branded “felon.”

Michelle Alexander’s stated goal is to begin a long-overdue conversation about a racialized caste system in the United States that has manipulated fear and taken advantage of indifference. This discussion guide provides a framework for responding to Alexander’s compelling and unsettling book. Readers are invited to share their reactions and reflections in a safe and trusting community. Discussion groups will explore concrete ways to respond to Alexander’s call for the spiritual work of building a movement to dismantle a system that has tainted us politically, legally, economically, culturally, and, above all morally. Participants engage with heart as well as mind as they look at assumptions, intentions, and ways of doing racial justice work.