“Mass incarceration – not attacks on affirmative action or lax civil rights enforcement – is the most damaging manifestation of the backlash against the Civil Rights Movement,” says Ms. Alexander, a longtime civil rights lawyer. The U.S. national policy of mass incarceration has created an underclass that “is better understood as an undercaste – a lower class of individuals who are permanently barred by law and custom from mainstream society. Although this new system of racialized social control purports to be colorblind, it creates and maintains a racial hierarchy much like the earlier [Jim Crow and slavery] systems of control.”
Click the player below to hear part one of this Black Agenda Report interview.
Black Mass Incarceration: The Big Payback, a BAR Interview with Michelle Alexander
BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist, Margaret Kimberley, analyzes the 2026 midterm election with Jamarl Thomas.
We reprint Dr. Gerald Horne's keynote speech at Black Agenda Report's 20th anniversary celebration.
The recent midterm elections have brought more Black people to high elected office, but for 20 years, Black Agenda Report has warned about the dangers of the Black misleadership class.
We reprint Dr. Jemima Pierre’s remarks at the 20th anniversary celebration for Black Agenda Report, New York City, November 7, 2026.
We reprint Ajamu Baraka’s remarks at the 20th anniversary celebration for Black Agenda Report, New York City, November 7, 2026.
