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

The Straight Line from Slavery to Mass Incarceration
Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
15 Oct 2018
🖨️ Print Article

The US model of mass incarceration can only be understood as an extension of slavery, said Martha Escobar, author of Captivity Beyond Prisons: Criminalization Experiences of Latina Immigrants. “Bringing non-white bodies into this country to labor for a predominantly white society has been the model that has carried over as immigrants entered the United States,” said Escobar, a professor of Chicano Studies at California State University at Northridge.

Slave Trade

More Stories


  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    DOCUMENT: Resolutions Passed by the Caribbean Anti-Imperialist Conference, Georgetown, Guyana, 1972
    04 Feb 2026
    “...this Caribbean Anti-Imperialist Conference..resolves..to work steadfastly for a democratic, anti-imperialist Caribbean union.”
  • Michael Parenti
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Michael Parenti: The War on Drugs Is a Cover for Imperialism and the CIA’s Own Drug Dealing
    04 Feb 2026
    Michael Parenti's legacy is clarity. He taught that U.S. policies like the drug war are successful strategies for maintaining power and profit.
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Minnesota 9 — now say their names: pastor, lawyer, journalists and resistance leaders
    04 Feb 2026
    "Minnesota 9 — now say their names: pastor, lawyer, journalists and resistance leaders" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Marisa Solomon’s Book, “The Elsewhere Is Black”
    04 Feb 2026
    In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This week’s featured author is Marisa Solomon. Solomon is Assistant Professor of Women’s, Gender, and…
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    The EPA’s Zero Sum Game Surfaces a Dialectical Paradox That Should Be Celebrated, Not Decried
    04 Feb 2026
    The debate over the EPA's new math misses the point. The agency hasn't changed its values, it has simply stopped pretending to account for communities it was never built to protect.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us