one specifically designed to address the social political and economic challenges of our time michelle alexander is a law professor who says that the disproportionate numbers of black people in prison in america today is akin to a new system of social control comparable to slavery. she says that while president obama has made some positive steps like signing legislation that reduced sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine where it really counts obama has not broken from the past but the reality is a drug control budget looks much like the bush administration's the ratio of funding invested in enforcement as opposed to prevention or drug treatment is about the same as the bush administration this is where it's not his real name he's agreed to talk to us if we disguise his identity. has been a drug dealer and a gang member he's currently awaiting trial charged with attempted murder. and gruesome. be a man walking the streets before it's in murders in russia. drug operation is on hold while he's out of jail on pretrial supervision one way that maryland has dealt with overcrowding of

against the class hierarchy the rich rule over the rest of us and the police protect the risk as michelle alexander author of the new jim crow has put it we need an effective system of crime prevention and control in our communities but that is not what the current system is this system is better designed to create crime and a perpetual class of people labeled criminals so what's the effect on adding thousands of laws to the books you end up with a load of arrests and now fact number 10 the us has the largest prison population globally that's right we are the largest prison state in the world fact number 11 police in some regards commit more crime than average citizens police down seized more from citizens via civil asset forfeiture than the amount of property stolen by street criminals in burglaries if only we had some sort of law enforcement agents who could arrive. the police. ok so if police are not protecting the citizens who are they protecting well it's really more what are they protecting fact number 12 they're protecting the class hierarchy they're protecting the private property of the ri

last natters black liberation and really any largess we're no longer talking about greece michelle alexander's the usual crew all of these were are actively seeking about how reeses is indebted society as well as the everyday journalism of people like nicole hatcher rose at the new york times who created 6090 projects to talk about the structural history and legacies of lynching of screw the nation coach all pro etc and with respect to organize i think this is the time now to organize the local communities whether people are in the united states or abroad to protest to donate and to research organizations that are flatland clear lead such as supply fissions collected to reclaim the block and it's also time where organizations and groups such as unions have to take up and to resist prospectus it's a point in which we have to challenge for that perpetuate braces as well as academic institutions that you can same so that means having a policy of justice which is. change and policies that challenge not just criminal justice but the materials and activities that exist in our society because of raci

we go now to michele alexander, the new jim crow for slavery and sharecropping and mass incarceration. what is the parallel or do you see a parallel in voter suppression and what has happened with the times and what is going on now in terms of the same kind of objectives of the right-wing and those who want to make sure black and brown people are not a part of this. >> let's look at florida, the best place to unpack this thing. prior to amendment number four which is the ballot initiative in 2018 to get rid of the permanent felony disenfranchisement in florida before that happened come in the united states there were over 6 million people who were disfranchised and could not vote because of a felony conviction. 1.7 million of them were in florida alone. 40% of black men in florida could not vote because of a felony conviction. over 20% of african-americans in general could not vote in florida because of a felony conviction. florida was going to counter in order to get the representation in congress but these were folks who could not vote so when you think about that, this is where flo

but soon began what michelle alexander has called the new jim crow, a system of policing and mass incarceration made it so that a black man in america has a 1 in 4 chance of being incarcerated in his lifetime, according to the sentencing project estimates. martin luther king also but an emphasis on the psychological damage done. to maintain slavery and segregation there had to be an ideology of white supremacy, one that left lasting effects on both blacks and whites. here is king summing up his points. >> emancipation for the negro was really freedom to hunger, freedom to the winds and rains of heaven, it was freedom without food to eat or land to cultivate. therefore, it was freedom and famine at the same time. when white americans tell the negro to lift himself by his own bootstraps, they don't look over the legacy of slavery and segregation. i believe we ought to do all we can and seek to lift ourselves by our own bootstraps, but it's a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps. many negros by the thousands and millions have been left bootless as

. >> michelle alexander. >> you got to come back. we got to get deeper into that.ll bring you back. >> i have more words. >> he's got more words. he's going to come back and do it again. have a great weekend. >>> i'm getting the ding, ding. states are reassessing their reopening plans after a spike in coronavirus cases. stay with us. after a spike in coronavirus cases. stay with us it's the 6:10 woke-up-like-this migraine medicine. the 3:40 mid-shift migraine medicine. it's called ubrelvy. the migraine medicine for anytime, anywhere a migraine attacks without worrying if it's too late or where you happen to be. one dose of ubrelvy can quickly stop a migraine in its tracks within two hours. do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. few people had side effects, most common were nausea and tiredness. ubrelvy. the anytime, anywhere migraine medicine. yoo-hoo, progressive shoppers. most common were nausea and tiredness. we laughed with you. sprinkles are for winners. we surprised you. on occasion, we've probably even annoyed you. we've done this all with one thing in m

michelle alexander, the author documented as the new jim crow. whatever you want to call it or knew wannuance you apply, they the critique that this thing we're living through that so many people are protesting against, this problem is such a problem because it is larger than individual people, which means even when the political leadership is more diverse, or when police forces are more diverse, the systemic problems don't just melt away, they can persist or deepen regardless of the individuals who are plugged into certain roles, precisely because these critiques i just mentioned, they argue that if our laws are still built on race, if our system is still fundamentally racially unfair, then the people carrying it out can be pulled and assumed into the problem. so you know, some politicians and pundits started suggesting, you may have heard this, last week and before, they started suggesting maybe it was time for the protesters to wrap up this stage, to move on to other things, to tweaking policy, going to meetings, playing an inside track. many

and "the new jim crow" by michelle alexander is fifth. >>> and the color of law forgotten history ofur government segregated america is also in the top ten. it's by bay area writer richard rothstein, who is joining us live right now. thank you, richard, for joining us today. >> thank you. >> so first off, tell us about your book. i know it explores the history of red lining. >> well, the book argues that the myth that we all share, but residential segregation, not only here in the bay area, but in every metropolitan area, is something we call de facto. it just happened by accident, it happened because people liked to live with each other or because of private bigotry or banks and real estate agents discriminating. what the book shows is that is largely untrue. of course, all those things happened, but the main reason that we're segregated here and everywhere else is because of very explicit government policy at the federal, state, and local levels, that was designed to ensure that african-americans and whites could not live near one another in any metropolitan area in the country. th

with less, it is disappointing that we have admired this problem for the last ten years since michelle alexander wrote a book. but today, we're standing here today to take action and i want to just say that to the community this is not the end of the fight. we have so much more work to do. an investigation is great and called for, we advised on it and we still need to make changes to the board that governors the licensing of officers. we need to look at all of the options in front of us. now is not the time to get up. get on the phone and call every person who represents the area where you live and make sure they know this needs to be a priority. make sure that commissioner has the support that they need to deliver on this issue for our community. terrance franklin, jamar clark, across the river with philandro castillo, george floyd, many others who didn't have a black lives matter movement to support them before now, have had their lives taken, and it's time that we remember them and we honor them with our efforts to fix this systemic problem. i spent a lot of time on the phone with folks from

the reality of it is, the system as michelle alexander noted in the new york times, it is functioning the way it was designed to. >> well, i mean, we have to change the design. i don't want to see more videotapes of people being killed. and, you know, george floyd is the one we're looking at now. he's not the first person to have died because either chokehold or a knee on a neck. that's just inappropriate, period. he was already handcuffed. and so i think it is my responsibility as a member of congress, that we have got to get this across the finish line. and frankly, all of the energy and all of the activity out there is going to help us do that. the other thing that is significantly different this time is that it is an absolute rainbow, it represents the beautiful diversity of our nation and of our world. and so to have people around the world protest, because of abuse in the united states, frankly they should be embarrassing to us. we're the land that preaches human rights for the rest of the world and look at what's going on here. and so i am hoping that all of that pressure, you

michelle kingston kron 4 news. >>president trump is angry after protesters trying to topple the statue of his favorite president. president andrew jackson. i'm alexander le mon in washington >>after protesters tried to topple a statue of andrew jackson in washington at lafayette square president trump is pushing for tough prison sentence for anybody who vandalizes a monument on federal property. democrats on capitol hill say the president though should stop protecting, racist monuments and listen to the protesters. our dc correspondent alexander le mon has more. >>the word killer was painted across the base of president andrew jackson statue in a park outside of the white house and protesters attempted to topple the statue number of people are in jail and going to jail today. now president trump promises 10 year prison sentences to those who vandalized monuments on federal >>senate majority leader mitch mcconnell says protesters want to erase history governors and mayors have stood down and watch criminals spray paint charges. and topple structures democrats criticized president trump for pushing for the harsh prison sentences, even as his administrat