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.”
The people of Ethiopia are understandably relieved that a peace agreement now exists between their government and the TPLF. But aspects of the agreement may allow the U.S. to continue the conflict…
The day known as Thanksgiving is an opportunity to remember how the settler colonial state began its genocide against both indigenous people and enslaved Africans.
Glen Ford wrote many powerful essays, but his unflinching analysis of the history of the holiday we call Thanksgiving endures nearly 20 years after he wrote it.
Glen Ford's posthumously published book, The Black Agenda, is a testament to the enduring power of his work.
The Ujima People's Progress Party is organizing outside of the duopoly in an effort to gain true political representation for Black working people.
