We at Coming
Together Amherst hope that your holidays were restorative and
joyful. As we enter the new year we continue our Coming
Together film series with a powerful speech given by Michelle
Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow”. Please Join
us Thursday January 8th at The Jones Library in Amherst at
7pm.
Michelle
Alexander speaks about “The
New Jim Crow”-
a powerful speech given at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in
Harlem, NY- Thursday,
January 8th, 2015 at The Jones Library. Free and
open to the public.
“The
New Jim Crow is a stunning account of the rebirth of a
caste-like system in the United States, one that has
resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind
bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class status
denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights
Movement. This DVD has been dubbed the secular bible of a
new social movement by numerous commentators, including
Cornel West, and has led to consciousness-raising efforts
in universities, churches, community centers, re-entry
centers and prisons nationwide. The New Jim Crow tells a
truth our nation has been reluctant to face.”
“Alexander
shows that, by targeting black men through the War on
Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S.
criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system
of racial control, even as it formally adheres to the
principle of colorblindness.”
Hoping to see you there,
Russ Vernon-Jones and the rest of us at Coming Together
Amherst
Upcoming
Dates:
- Thursday, Feb 5 – video; “Vincent Who?” a powerful film about Vincent Chin and the Asian American civil rights movement
- Tuesday, March 3 – feature film: “Smoke Signals” a film debunking stereotypes about native people, followed by discussion with some local native people.
- We are also planning an evening with a multi-racial panel of local people sharing their experiences and perspectives and leading a general conversation with the community.
