Portside

Rather than evaluate one’s own behavior in a bad situation, one tends to blame others and to disregard the constraints that others operate under. This is typically considered to be a “self-serving bias”. The character of the man of the West always surmounts the character of the man of the East. The violence of the West is prophylactic, while the violence of the East is destructive.

On a recent visit to Ho Chi Minh City’s (Vietnam) War Remnants Museum I was reminded Americans have never come to grips with our invasion and war on Vietnam. Yet, while we haven’t come to grips with our war on Vietnam, Americans have never come to grips with our own history, specifically how Europeans stole this land from Native Peoples and then built this country on the backs of of African slaves, while institutionalizing white supremacy.

While the executive orders, guidances, rhetoric and tweets of the past 100 days have stirred fear and anxiety in communities around the country and the world, immigrant women and women of color have continued to raise their voices, by organizing, mobilizing, engaging members of Congress and local elected leaders, in order to lead and defend our democracy.

n this report, we look closely at President Trump’s actions in his first 100 days in office and ask: Do these actions benefit or harm U.S. workers and our economy?

The late Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm recounts the origins of International Workers' Day.

Why most of the tobacco epidemic remains in our future.

BackersOfHate.org documents Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Uber and more companies' ties to the Trump Administration and policies that negatively impact poor people of color.

Billions of gallons of pig feces and urine are collected in lagoons, mixed with blood and rotting pig body parts. To keep these fetid ponds from overflowing, the toxic liquid is pumped skyward with enormous spray devices, aerosolizing the waste, which is carried away by the wind.

Unauthorized entry into the U.S. wasn’t always a crime and Mexican immigrants didn’t always fear prosecution. Congress’ early efforts to include Mexicans in its “whites only immigration policy” were stymied by Western agribusiness, which wanted unfettered access to Mexican laborers. Up stepped a white supremacist South Carolina Senator with a compromise. Coleman Blease’s Immigration Act of 1929 dramatically altered the story of crime and punishment in the United States.

A new generation of chefs and activists are using dinner parties to help refugees and more affected by the election.