In chapter five of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander defines undercaste in two ways: (1) “an enormous population of predominantly black and brown people who, because of the drug war, are denied basic rights and privileges of American citizenship and are permanently relegated to an inferior status” (p.232), and (2) “a group defined wholly or largely by race that is permanently locked out of mainstream, white society by law, custom, and practice” (p.236). People that are a part of the undercaste system are also impacted by mass incarceration according to Alexander—their innate marginalization based on skin color results in their predisposition to being imprisoned. Not only are members of the undercaste affected by lack of privileges whilst incarcerated, but the effects are also perpetuated permanently into society once (and if) they are released.
Alexander’s definition of undercaste can be used to help us understand the documentaries 13th and Ethnic Notions. For 13th, the first definition of undercaste can be used as it is more specific to the system of mass incarceration and the racial caste system in the United States. Having statistics along with visual components helps in cementing how deeply rooted the undercaste system has been in the United States’s history with black (and brown) people. The second definition can be more flexible and serve as a framework for understanding how the negative portrayals of black people as “savage,” “brutes,” and “super-predators” (from 13th) prevents them from being able to truly integrate into “mainstream, white society.” The dehumanization of black and brown people has shifted from something as obvious as a caricature to this “subtle” undercaste system.
Works Cited
Alexander, Michelle. “The New Jim Crow.” The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, 10th anniversary ed., The New Press, 2020, pp. 221–273.
“Ethnic Notions.” Films On Demand, Films Media Group, 1987, https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=103806&xtid=49775.
