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 Black political class is not made up solely of politicians. Celebrities and athletes like LeBron James are given access to corporate dollars and their politics reflect their class interests.
Cory Booker has been a favorite of right-wing interest groups ever since he first ran for office to become mayor of Newark 20 years ago.
The people of Gaza are completely at the mercy of Israel, without help from the outside world.
So-called leftists allowed themselves to be bamboozled by the Russiagate narrative. Great damage has been done to journalism, particularly that of the Black left, who are at great risk of being…
Depriving human beings of food, water, and electricity is a war crime. Exacting collective punishment of civilian populations is also a war cime. The U.S./Israeli attack on Gaza is a genocide by…
