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The NAACP has just passed a historic resolution demanding an end to the War on Drugs.  The resolution comes as young Black male unemployment hovers near 50 percent and the wealth gap's become a veritable gulf. So why is the forty-year-old "War on Drugs" public enemy number one for the nation's oldest civil rights organization? Well here's why:  it's not extraneous - it's central: the war on drugs is the engine of 21st century discrimination - an engine that has brought Jim Crow into the age of Barack Obama.     Author Michelle Alexander lays out the statistics -- and the stories --  of 21st Century Jim Crow in her ought-to-blow-your-socks off book: "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in an Age of Colorblindness." I had a chance to sit down with Alexander earlier this summer. We'll be posting the full interview in two parts.     "We have managed decades after the civil rights movement to create something like a caste system in the United States," says Alexander in part one here  "In major urban areas, the majority of African American men are either behind bars, under correctional control or saddled with criminal record and once branded as criminal or a felon, they're trapped for life in 2nd class status."     It's not just about people having a hard time getting ahead and climbing the ladder of success. It's about a rigged system. Sound familiar?  Like the Pew Research Center report on household wealth and the Great Recession -- the NAACP resolution story was a one-day news-blip - despite the fact that it pierces the by-your-bootstraps myth that is at the heart of - you pick it - the deficit, the stimulus, the tax code - every contemporary US economic debate.     White America just maybe ought to pay attention. With more and more Americans falling out of jobs and into debt, criminal records are a whole lot easier to come by than life-sustaining employment.  Contrary to the conventional media version, the "Drug War" story is not a people with problems

Dipen Gada & Associates veers away from designing a conventional workplace to infuse a sense of charm and a welcoming warmth - working towards both - building brand identity for the client as well as challenging their own limits as architects! Check out how an indigo blue flooring sets the pace for buoyancy in this office…

Didzis Jaunzem breaks conventional stereotypes of stage design with his concept for 'Abas Malas' (Both Sides), Latvia's centenary celebration event. Check out the story here…

Veering away from the old, introverted, conventional office space, the open-plan horizontal architecture aims at transforming work habits and work place culture to co-relate with its new interactive environment. Check out this office in Istanbul by Mimari Studio and leave us your views…

Foster+Partners' design for the Sharjah House of Wisdom marries conventional architectural practice with innovation and technology.

tHE gRID Architects use nature and natural elements to effect an inside-outside dialogue between the built form and the homeowners establishing a well balanced mix of contemporary lifestyle and conventional rootedness. Check out this bungalow in Nagpur and leave us your views

An experiential space as temporal and transient as the hours in a day - Fran Silvestre Arquitectos refurbish this residence, 'The Fourth Room', to catalyse growth. Check out this non-conventional play of space here…

The Spatium Interiors designs a 700 sq. ft. boutique #Ease in #Mumbai that turns the conventional retail approach on its head! Take a sneak peek here!

India Art n Design (dot)com in conversation with Carlos Arnaiz Architects on their people-centric, culturally sensitive design of sacred spaces. Check out the ideologies that have led to the amazing architecture of contemporary churches like 100-Walls Church and La Salle Church among others…