(In the Chicago area, the figure is nearly 80%.) These men are part of a growing undercaste - not class, caste - permanently relegated, by law, to a second-class status. *If you take into account prisoners, a large majority of African American men in some urban areas have been labeled felons for life. The recent disintegration of the African American family is due in large part to the mass imprisonment of black fathers. * A black child born today is less likely to be raised by both parents than a black child born during slavery. *As of 2004, more African American men were disenfranchised (due to felon disenfranchisement laws) than in 1870, the year the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified, prohibiting laws that explicitly deny the right to vote on the basis of race. *There are more African Americans under correctional control today - in prison or jail, on probation or parole - than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began. Here are a few facts that run counter to that triumphant racial narrative: In the “era of colorblindness” there’s a nearly fanatical desire to cling to the myth that we as a nation have “moved beyond” race. Most people don’t like it when I say this. Racial caste is alive and well in America. Perhaps greater lies have been told in the past century, but they can be counted on one hand. Trust our rules, laws, customs, and wars. If you are poor, marginalized, or relegated to an inferior caste, there is hope for you. There’s an implicit yet undeniable message embedded in his appearance on the world stage: this is what freedom looks like this is what democracy can do for you. Obama’s mere presence in the Oval Office is offered as proof that “the land of the free” has finally made good on its promise of equality. Ever since Barack Obama lifted his right hand and took his oath of office, pledging to serve the United States as its 44th president, ordinary people and their leaders around the globe have been celebrating our nation’s “triumph over race.” Obama’s election has been touted as the final nail in the coffin of Jim Crow, the bookend placed on the history of racial caste in America.

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander