A new book club starting in Palo Alto seeks to bring readers one step closer to understanding what it’s like to be in another’s skin.
The book club, which aims to improve local interracial understanding, is kicking off on Saturday, Oct. 10, with the reading and discussion of “The New Jim Crow — Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.”
The New York Times best-selling novel by civil rights litigator and scholar Michelle Alexander is an exposé of how mass imprisonment in the United States has created a racial caste system, according to reviewers.
The book shows how through each generation new tactics have evolved to exclude African-Americans — especially men — from participating in American democracy.
Mass incarceration is a direct descendant of earlier forms of social oppression that has “emerged as a stunningly comprehensive and well-disguised system of racialized social control that functions in a manner strikingly similar to Jim Crow,” Alexander wrote.
A reading and discussion of “The New Jim Crow” will take place on Saturday and Nov. 14 at 10 a.m. at University AME Zion Church, 3549 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. The book club is open to everyone and it will feature additional books and discussions in the coming months.
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The book club is a good start to OPEN communication. Good luck!
By the way 10:00AM on a Saturday???? I bit early for a weekend day.
I’m afraid I don’t see much racism by Caucasians in Palo Alto– certainly not toward blacks. What I DO see is Asian ( particularly immigrant Chinese) racism toward Americans rather white, black, or brown– though especially toward black Americans.
There is also a HUGE problem with racism in our high schools and some middle schools. Mostly, though, it is Asian kids ( predominantly Children of wealthy Chinese nationals ) calling Caucasians, blacks, and Mexicans “stupid”– publicly and privately. Also a lot of whispering and pointing by these students when on the presence of non-Asians.
A book club won’t help this. Racial sensitivity training and sociology training WILL.
“Mass imprisonment in the United States?” Is the author suggesting that those incarcerated did not commit crimes?
Interracial understanding is one thing; an agenda is quite another.
Regarding the comment by @NoraCharles, may I respectfully suggest that she and others who question the sub-title actually read the book? I just finished it and found that the author made many persuasive arguments. I am contemplating what “corrective” measures might be taken for colorblindness.
I am an avid reader and like book clubs. I don’t think the major issue in Palo Alto is discrimination against Blacks by Whites, but discrimination by Whites against Latinos due to cultural differences in values. I also see discrimination against Chinese nationals by Latinos and Whites, as well as plenty of reverse discrimination by Chinese nationals against Whites and Latinos—as well as unqualified fear of Blacks by Chinese and Korean nationals, both of whom Blacks seem to find to be rude.
A book club might help these issues if books could be found that address them, but I think some of these issues are still too new.