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].

âMass incarceration has turned the Black community against itself,â 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 Americaâs Black Gulag a priority. âIf the way we pursue reforms does not contribute to the building of a movement to dismantle the system of mass incarceration,â says the veteran civil rights lawyer, âand 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 nationâs racial equilibrium.â