[Peace] Fwd: "New Jim Crow" Reading Group Reminder for 10-19-11

[Karen Medina]

Dear reader,

A reminder that the New Jim Crow Reading Group will meet for our
regular session this Wednesday [today] 7-9 p.m. at the IMC. We will be
covering Chapter 3. To refresh memories and fill in the blanks, last
week we had an interesting discussion which pushed the boundaries on
Michelle Alexander’s arguments. Our main areas of focus were:

1)      The question of whether the harsh sentencing laws or the
“felon” label was a more critical piece of mass incarceration. A range
of views emerged on this issue.

2)      Is the legalization of drugs the only way to end the War on
Drugs? Michelle is silent on this issue but we went into quite some
detail around it.

3)      We also reviewed the discussion of her term “racial caste”-
which most people found to be useful and provocative, if not always
precise.

     I know a number of people from the Reading Group participated in
the Restorative Circles meetings over the last few days so I am hoping
we can get a brief report back from then and think about how
Restorative Circles might link into responses to mass incarceration
and notions of a social movement around transforming the criminal
justice system.

Look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday.