“If you take into account prisoners, a large majority of African American men in some urban areas, like Chicago, have been labeled felons for life. These men are part of a growing undercaste - not class, caste - a group of people who are permanently relegated, by law, to an inferior second-class status.”

American writer, attorney, and civil rights activist

Michelle Alexander is an American writer, attorney, and civil rights activist, best known for her 2010 book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Her work centers on race, criminal justice, and the lasting effects of mass incarceration in the United States. Since 2018, she has also written as an opinion columnist for The New York Times, extending that critique into public commentary and debate.