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The political strategy of divide, demonize and conquer has worked for centuries in the United States — since the days of slavery — to keep poor and working people angry at (and fearful of) one another rather than uniting to challenge unjust political and economic systems.

— Michelle Alexander The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010)

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Certainly youth of color, particularly those in ghetto communities, find themselves born into the cage. They are born into a community in which the rules, laws, policies, structures of their lives virtually guarantee that they will remain trapped for life.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Michelle Alexander (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.