How long does it take to read The New Jim Crow?
Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Michelle Alexander
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander takes about 5 hours 43 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 5 hours 43 minutes
A weekend read
First published 2000. 312 pages, about 85,800 words.
12 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 9 hours 32 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 5 hours 43 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 3 hours 35 minutes |
The page count is the median across 30 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Michelle Alexander, who works as a lawyer and scholar in the field of civil rights, examines how the American criminal justice system treats Black men and other disadvantaged groups. She argues that the war on drugs serves as a tool of racial control, reviving older forms of discrimination under a colorblind appearance. In her view, mass incarceration works like Jim Crow, producing a permanent undercaste. Labeling people as criminals legally limits their access to jobs, housing, education and voting. She urges that the issue be treated as a matter of civil rights.
This summary was written by AI and checked by a second AI model. How these are chosen.
Subjects: Administration of Criminal justice, Race relations, Race discrimination, African American prisoners, Prisoners, Rassendiskriminierung
