The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. Evidence-packed investigation of how the War on Drugs and mass incarceration have been leveraged to disenfranchise and o

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. Evidence-packed investigation of how the War on Drugs and mass incarceration have been leveraged to disenfranchise and oppress black people in America. It is infuriating and upsetting and inspiring to read (and provides excellent context for Black Lives Matter and the protests over police brutality). More than anything else, the statistics Michelle Alexander bring together make the racism behind the system incredibly plain. If 6.4% of whites and 6.4% of blacks use illegal drugs in any particular year (and similar numbers for other minorities), and people tend to purchase drugs from people of their own race, it's insane that black people are incarcerated at a rate over 6x that of white people. The chilling part is that, once you are convicted of a felony, you essentially become a second-class citizen. In 31 states, ex-felons cannot vote (or it's very difficult to do so). 13% of African American males are disenfranchised for this reason. This is a pale summary of her book, I highly recommend reading it.