Part One of this interview appeared here, in the January 6 issue of BAR. On January 20, BAR will begin publishing excerpts from The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness [The New Press].
“Mass incarceration has turned the Black community against itself,” says Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Black Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Mainstream organizations like the Congressional Black Caucus and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights put out laundry lists of proposed reforms, while failing to make America’s Black Gulag a priority. “If the way we pursue reforms does not contribute to the building of a movement to dismantle the system of mass incarceration,” says the veteran civil rights lawyer, “and if our advocacy does not upset the prevailing public consensus that supports the new caste system, none of the reforms, even if won, will successfully disrupt the nation’s racial equilibrium.”
Issues before the high court range from health care access and citizenship to workplace discrimination and redistricting.
While ICE and law enforcement unleash raids across LA, protesters stand firm, exposing the brutal machinery of deportation and the state’s violent response to dissent and resistance.
Gaza’s hospitals have become killing fields, and medical workers witness Israeli forces executing unarmed civilians, including children.
Nowhere is safe in Gaza. US-backed Israeli forces are turning aid centers into slaughter zones, targeting starving civilians as they desperately search for food and medicine.
Roger D. Harris analyzes Western media's biased and dishonest coverage of Venezuela's May 25 election and the sweeping Chavismo victory.
