BOOK REVIEW NUGGETS: The New Jim Crow, The Problem with Racial Reconciliation, and Doing Democracy

These three books should be read together as a trio of closely related books:  The New Jim Crow written by a black lawyer; The Problem with Racial Reconciliation by a black, evangelical theologian; Doing Democracy by a veteran, white social activist or scholar/activist.  Since economic inequality (racial wealth gap) is closely tied to mass incarceration, I also recommend either The Hidden Cost of Being African American by a white sociologist, Thomas Shapiro, or Punishment and Inequality by Bruce Western, a white sociologist.

Michelle Alexander, in her brilliant and well-received expose of mass incarceration entitled The New Jim Crow, states that there are two requirements to solve the problem: 1) create a social movement to force the government to take action on unjust mass incarceration, and 2) to grapple with the underlying problem of racism (racial profiling).  Neither abolitionists nor the civil rights movement succeeded in destroying the racism behind slavery and segregation.  When the underlying racism was not eliminated, racist oppressors simply designed a new system of oppression---mass incarceration. 

In a previous essay, I discussed the book by Ken Young entitled The Problem with Racial Reconciliation.  Young shows that white evangelicals have not yet adequately grappled with racism and racialization.  He also explains how biblical justice and reconciliation are the key to a solution.

Doing Democracy: The MAP [Movement Action Plan] for Organizing Social Movements by Bill Moyers (not the PBS bill Moyers) is another book that must be read along with The New Jim Crow.  It describes in great detail how to create a successful social movement; Michelle Alexander believes that a social movement is beginning to build around mass incarceration.  Moyers is a disciple of the Gandhi, King, Mandela non-violent type of social movement; he wants to improve democracy, not destroy it.  Some readers might be overwhelmed by all the factors necessary for a successful social movement; some will be grateful for advance warning about the many factors that might derail a social movement.  

Now some nuggets from Doing Democracy:

In the United States, the recognition of basic human rights---the abolition of slavery, the right of labor to organize, child labor laws, the right for African Americans and women to vote---came about through the efforts of engaged citizens. . . . Nonviolent social movements, based in grassroots people power, are a means for ordinary people to act on their deepest values and successfully challenge unjust social conditions and policies, despite the determined resistance of entrenched private and public power.

MAP defines social movements as collective actions in which the populace is alerted, educated, and mobilized, sometimes over years and decades, to challenge the powerholders and the whole society to redress social problems or grievances and restore critical social values.

In 19th-century America, the abolition, temperance, labor, and women's movements used many nonviolent strategies, such a marches and rallies, to raise issues and demand change. . . . In the last three decades, the women's movement, which arose in the United States out of the civil rights and peace movements, has blossomed everywhere, with women in Africa and the Middle East also engaged in collective actions.

MAP allows activists to:
* identify where, on the normal eight-stage road of movement success, their movement is at any specific time;
* create stage-appropriate strategies, tactics, and programs that enable them to advance their movement along to the next step on the road to success;
* identify and celebrate their movement's incremental progress and successes;
* play all four roles of activism effectively;
* overcome irrational feelings of powerlessness and failure; and
* engage ordinary citizens in the grand strategy of effective social movements---participatory democracy.

There are four different roles activists and social movements need to play in order to successfully create social change: the citizen, rebel, change agent, and reformer.  Each role has different purposes, styles, skills, and needs and can be played effectively and ineffectively.

Change agent: move society from reform to social change by promoting a paradigm shift.

On page 27, there is a brilliant discussion of how citizen, rebel, change agent and reform roles can and often do conflict.

The eight stages of the process of social movement success are:

1. Normal times  2. Prove the failure of official institutions  3.  Ripening Conditions  4. Take off  5. Perception of failure  6. Majority Public Opinion  7.  Success  8. Continuing the struggle human society is made up of three interconnected and interdependent parts: individuals, culture, and social systems and institutions, the "I", "we", and "it."  They are different aspects of the same whole; consequently, one can't be transformed for long without the requisite changes in the other two.

To be continued