Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Black Mass Incarceration: The Big Payback, a BAR Interview with Michelle Alexander. Part 2 of 2
13 Jan 2010
🖨️ Print Article

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.”

 


More Stories


  • UNAC Conference flyer
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Opening Remarks from Ajamu Baraka at the 2024 UNAC Conference
    17 Apr 2024
    Ajamu Baraka delivered this speech at the opening of the 2024 United National Antiwar Coalition Conference.
  • Rwandan refugees
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    The US Did Not Fail to Intervene in Rwanda
    17 Apr 2024
    The U.S. kept the U.N. Security Council from sending in troops to stop the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
  • Man holding Haitian flag in front of fire
    MOLEGHAF
    MOLEGHAF Denounces the US-Imposed “Accord for Peaceful Orderly Transition” in Haiti
    17 Apr 2024
    The "transitional council" in Haiti is another part of the plan to maintain the dominance of imperialist forces over the island. This process is driving the nation further into a socioeconomic crisis.
  • OJ Simpson at his trial
    Gus Griffin
    O.J. Simpson and Understanding the Black Support He Never Deserved
    17 Apr 2024
    O.J. Simpson's acquittal in one of the most infamous murder trials of the 20th century was celebrated as a symbolic win for the Black community against an oppressive system. However, O.J. was…
  • Axis of resistance
    Essam Elkorghli
    The Axis of Resistance Exposing the Functionaries of Imperialism
    17 Apr 2024
    The Axis of Resistance is shining a light on the reactionary regimes in the region who remain active and willing agents of imperialism.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us