( CNN ) -- Who am I ? How do I identify ? Lately , I 've been telling people that I 'm a criminal . This shocks most people , since I do n't `` look like '' one . I 'm a fairly clean-cut , light-skinned black woman with fancy degrees from Vanderbilt University and Stanford Law School . I 'm a law professor and I once clerked for a U.S. Supreme Court Justice -- not the sort of thing you 'd expect a criminal to do . What 'd you get convicted of ? people ask . Nothing , I say . Well , then why do you say you 're a criminal ? Because I am a criminal , I say , just like you . This is where the conversation gets interesting . Most of my acquaintances do n't think of themselves as criminals . No matter what their color , age or gender , most of the people in my neighborhood and in my workplace seem to think criminals exist somewhere else -- in ghettos , mainly . They have an unspoken , but deeply rooted identity as `` law-abiding citizens . '' I ask them , `` Have n't you ever committed a crime ? '' Oddly , people often seem perplexed by this question . What do you mean ? they say . I mean , have n't you ever smoked pot , did n't you ever drink underage , do n't you sometimes speed on the freeway , have n't you gotten behind the wheel after having a couple of drinks ? Have n't you broken the law ? Well , yeah , they say , but I 'm not a criminal . Oh , really ? What are you , then ? As I see it , you 're just somebody who has n't been caught . You 're still a criminal , no better than many of those who 've been branded felons for life . Perhaps there should be a box on the census form that says `` I 'm a criminal . '' Everyone who has ever committed a crime would be required to check it . If everyone were forced to acknowledge their own criminality , maybe we , as a nation , would second-guess our apparent zeal for denying full citizenship to those branded felons . In this country , we force millions of people -- who are largely black and brown -- into a permanent second-class status , simply because they once committed a crime . Once labeled a felon , you are ushered into a parallel social universe . You can be denied the right to vote , automatically excluded from juries and legally discriminated against in employment , housing , access to education and public benefits -- forms of discrimination that we supposedly left behind . This kind of stigma , discrimination and social exclusion may befall you for no reason other than you were once caught with drugs . I doubt Barack Obama thinks of himself as a criminal , though he should . He has admitted to using illegal drugs during his college years -- lots , in fact . What if he thought of himself as a criminal ? What if he identified that way ? Would it lead him to feel a bit more compassion for those who are branded drug felons for life , unable to find work or housing , and deemed ineligible even for food stamps ? Maybe if Obama thought of himself as a criminal he would n't have just endorsed spending even more money on prisons at a time when scarce resources would be much better spent on education or health care , or just about anything else . I am a criminal . Coming to terms with this aspect of my identity has helped me to see more clearly -- with blinders off -- the ways in which I have been encouraged not to feel any connection to `` them , '' those labeled criminals . I see now that `` they '' are me , and I am them . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Michelle Alexander .
Michelle Alexander says calling herself a criminal to friends starts an interesting exchange . Many of us , even Obama , commit small crimes , but still think we 're good citizens , she says . Stigma , social exclusion attach simply because you were once caught with drugs , she says . Writer : Copping to our crimes gives us more sympathy for the convicted , disenfranchised .