Reddit reviews New Jim Crow, The

As Michelle Alexander wrote in her excellent book, 'The New Jim Crow', the Drug War and the Prison Industrial Complex are the new tools of institutional racism. The drug war vastly and disproportionately affects black and Latino peeps.

https://www.amazon.com/New-Jim-Crow-Incarceration-Colorblindness/dp/1501260235

Recent research has leaned towards the "some level of racial bias" in sentencing argument. You've already noted one source: Racial Disparity in Federal Criminal Sentences by Starr and Rehavi (2014). I would also add the Demographic Differences in Federal Sentencing Practices by the US Sentencing Commission (2010). They make the following observations:

• "Black male offenders received longer sentences than white male offenders..."
  
• "Female offenders of all races received shorter sentences than male offenders. The differences in sentence length fluctuated at different rates in the time periods studied for white females, black females, Hispanic females, and “other” female offenders (such as those of Native American, Alaskan Native, and Asian or Pacific Islander origin)."
  
  Note that these studies tackle sentencing length and not prosecution and conviction rates (or the likelihood of being sentenced). Your original article "There Is No Evidence of Racial Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System" mostly talks about prosecution and conviction rates in its "Criminal Justice Literature" section.
  
  Off the top of my head, I can't think of any research that asserts racial bias in prosecution and conviction rates. I'm inclined to believe the author's non-discrimination argument here.
  
  However, this discussion rests on the assumption that laws are racially fair to begin with. It is possible for police officers and judges to fairly enforce laws with disporportionate effects, and have racially baised effects. Michelle Alexander argues this point in her book The New Jim Crow (2010) and characterizes the modern justice system as one that is facially "race-neutral" but ends up targeting African-American males anyways. Check out this previous /r/AskSocialScience thread for more info.
  
  P.S. The original author of your post makes several references to "president-elect Obama", which implies they wrote it in late-2008. If this is true, then that means their post predates everything I've mentioned above.

Wake up

the new jim crow

>Do you have any ideas as to how I can quantify the influence of the Wire outside of the United States? Beyond the fact that it is universally acclaimed?

There was a half-hour special HBO released before the premiere of season 5, and it included some background on the show, as well as interviews with the cast and creators. (I think it was either called The Wire Odyssey or The Wire: The Last Word, in case that helps.) I expect this would be available as a DVD and/or Blu-ray extra, too.

Anyway, Robert Wisdom, who played Colvin, mentioned that the show had a really devoted following amongst people in some Caribbean country with its own history of drug trafficking and its attendant violence. (Jamaica, perhaps? I forget.) People had taped the show and shared those tapes over and over, and they personally told Wisdom how important that story was to them. The stories about Baltimore and its civic dysfunction really resonated there, even though so much of the context was specific to the deindustrialization of large American cities.

This might give you an entry point into how The Wire was received elsewhere. Another way might be to see how The Wire has influenced shows that followed. There are some American examples which didn't try to replicate The Wire, but they were clearly inspired by that show's refusal to dumb things down for its audience. For me, it's hard to imagine a show like Breaking Bad without understanding some of the vocabulary of The Wire. And although it's a very different show, you can see the attempt to pay attention to details in something like The Good Wife, for example. It's probably one of the best shows to depict computing and technology accurately, especially in the context of the law, at least until something like Mr. Robot.

There's The Wire's influence on international TV, too. For example, consider something like European series The Last Panthers or, to a lesser extent, the Italian mafia series Gomorrah. (I'm personally less familiar with the latter, in full disclosure.) These are bleak shows with wider scopes than typical law enforcement shows, and it's clear that they owe a debt to the storytelling ambition The Wire demonstrated. The Last Panthers, in particular, is set in at least four different countries, and it shows how war leads to crime, and how criminals are pursued by law enforcement continent-wide.

To the extent your professor is interested in controversy generated by The Wire, I'm not sure how much you'll find in the context of critical disagreement over the show's reputation as a TV series. There's some controversy in Baltimore itself, where elected city leaders in particular complained about how the show's depiction of Baltimore was so negative. You might have more luck if you look into some of the policy ideas advanced by the show or its creators, whether directly of implicitly. In particular, consider [Colvin's attempt to partially legalize the drug trade via Hamsterdam](/spoiler "Season 3"). As I understand it, that season may have inspired some real-life copycats in law enforcement^([citation needed]), though most of the references I'd heard were American rather than international. I know there'd also been complaints that some real-life criminals began emulating techniques shown on The Wire in terms of evading law enforcement: using burner phones, using only pagers and payphones, encoding their communications, etc.

There's also the body of commentary by the show's creators. David Simon, in particular, has been incredibly critical of The War on Drugs. His analysis of that is certainly controversial—e.g., openly advocating jury nullification for drug crimes—though that may fall beyond the scope of the show itself and the show's influence. You can also consider The Wire to provide an important context for some arguments in print and documentary films. I imagine that it's easier to understand the thesis behind something like Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Baltimore native Ta-Nehisi Coates' "The Case for Reparations", or the documentary The House I Live In, which includes interviews with David Simon. (This is different from How to Make Money Selling Drugs, another 2012 documentary interviewing Simon on the same topic.) It also provides a context for real-world events like the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore and the subsequent riots, as well as the Black Lives Matter movement more generally. BLM is certainly controversial.

I imagine that The Wire may have contributed to the civic conversation which led to the state-level legalization of marijuana in states like Colorado—but it also explains the instability of local legalization efforts when there are still federal anti-marijuana laws, to say nothing of federal anti-money laundering laws which further complicate statewide legalization efforts. (E.g., "legal" marijuana dispensaries in places like Colorado can't use banks because that would be a federal felony under money laundering laws.) A lot of this has only indirect relevance to The Wire itself, but it might give you a starting point.

I wish I had more useful suggestions for the influence the show has had internationally. In any event, good luck on your project!

>'Racism' in the public consciousness ...

Jim Crow racism. People are now colorblind racists.

sources: https://www.amazon.com/New-Jim-Crow-Incarceration-Colorblindness/dp/1501260235
https://www.amazon.com/Racism-without-Racists-Color-Blind-Persistence/dp/1442202181

We still have segregation. It's never gone away. I live in Milwaukee, which is one of the most segregated cities in America. Racism and discrimination is still a huge problem in the states.

This is a great book to read in order to have a better understanding of what's going on in America for minorities