Portside

• Who Voted for the Brexit? – Andrew McGill (The Atlantic)
• Progressives Need to Stop Ignoring Rural Communities – Anthony Flaccavento (The Nation)
• LGBT People of Color Alienated by San Francisco Pride's Plan for More Police – Julia Carrie Wong (The Guardian)
• Conservative Rabbi Ousted From Florida Synagogue After Protesting Donald Trump – Ben Sales (Forward)
• Language and privilege make Detroit schools debacle worse – Stephen Henderson (Detroit Free Press)

Who Voted for the Brexit?

By Andrew McGill
June 25, 2016
The Atlantic

With the close of Britain’s referendum, political analysts now have a concrete dataset to examine: the actual vote totals in the United Kingdom. This data, when matched with regional demographic information from the U.K. Census, gives insight into who actually voted to leave or remain.

While it’s impossible to know how every person in Britain voted—secret ballot and all that—it is possible to infer how broad demographic groups feel about the Brexit by analyzing vote totals from different areas.

Progressives Need to Stop Ignoring Rural Communities

By Anthony Flaccavento
June 22, 2016
The Nation

Why have rural communities moved so far to the right? Why have farmers, miners, drillers, loggers, and a host of other working folks become so enthralled with the antigovernment, anti-environmentalist, and antilabor pundits and politicians?

There’s a much-less-discussed factor in this shift: the near-complete absence of the “rural” among the priorities, policies, and leaders on the other side, i.e., in the progressive movement. By rural, I mean the people, their communities, the predominant livelihoods, and the culture and language of these places. The plain fact of the matter is that, excepting recent transplants from the cities, most rural people see progressives as elitist, dismissive of their concerns, largely ignorant of both their problems and their contributions to the nation. And too often, living “in their head” rather than getting their hands dirty.

LGBT People of Color Alienated by San Francisco Pride's Plan for More Police

By Julia Carrie Wong
June 22, 2016
The Guardian

San Francisco is ramping up security at its annual Pride festivities this weekend in the wake of the deadly attack on queer people of color in Orlando – a move that is alienating some members of the community that this year’s “racial and economic justice”-themed event is meant to celebrate.

But for some members of the city’s LGBT community, who have historically faced harassment and disparate treatment from police, increased security does not translate into an increased sense of safety.

Conservative Rabbi Ousted From Florida Synagogue After Protesting Donald Trump

By Ben Sales
June 19, 2016
Forward

David Paskin, who serves as rabbi of the Conservative Temple Beth David synagogue in the south Florida city of Palm Beach Gardens, will leave his position in July. In March, Paskin was one of a group of Conservative rabbis who led a protest of Trump’s speech at the annual conference of AIPAC, the Israel lobby.

Some two months later, Paskin’s contract was not renewed.

Language and Privilege Make Detroit Schools Debacle Worse

By Stephen Henderson
June 25, 2016
Detroit Free Press

Republicans in the Michigan Legislature and the highly financed charter school lobby feel compelled to use the most insulting language to describe the recasting of public education here in Detroit. It has become so common that even press reports now refer to the legislation as a bailout.

Though, I’m pretty sure it boils down to two things: privilege and manipulation.

Why else, for instance, is the package of bills signed by the governor last week still being referred to as a bailout — as if the money included to retire public school debts were some sort of gift to rash, harebrained Detroiters?