Portside

Koch Industries' Mysterious Swiss Bank. Black and White in the War on Drugs. The Courage of Stuart Scott. Why Are There No Women in The Hobbit? Jerusalem's Most Contested Neighborhood.

Reader Comments - Selma; Civil Rights Tour led by Julian Bond; Ferguson Grand Jury; Police, NYPD, PBA, de Blasio; Women telling their Story; Wealth and Inequality; Sports - A Radical Proposal; BDS, Israel, Palestine, Solidarity; Sony; The Interview; Privatization and Hucksterism; Climate Change, Marx and Nature; Healthcare; Superbugs; the Ukraine; Announcements - The American Labor Movement At A Crossroads; Elections in Greece: Can Syriza Break with Austerity?

[This is the first of a three-part series, Rage Against the Narrative, by Praxis Senior Editor Dr. Lisa Brock. The series is written in response to the uprising sparked by the killings of unarmed black people throughout the US. The three epigraphs below are gestures to each part.]

The weakness of the petrostate economy could jolt Russia's political elites-or its ordinary citizens-to take action.

Statistics speak for themselves - revealing the New York Police Department has been needlessly arresting people who were not criminals at all. The NYPD has given Mayor Bill de Blasio proof that the department is indeed out of control, and not accountable to the people they are there to protect. The "broken windows" approach to law enforcement needs to be scrapped, and also the age-old trend of funding America's cities on the backs of the poor.

The tragic massacre in Paris will undoubtedly give fuel to the traditional xenophobic far-Right and the danger is an increase in racism, marginalization and exclusion of people of Muslim descent in Europe and further. We do not want to witness "anti-Muslim witch hunts". One way to commemorate this terrible event and memorialize its victims is to unequivocally defend universal human rights, including the right to freedom of expression, and they apply to all.

“Lets you and I be honest, we live in a country where there are still some that do not want to accept black and brown people into the circle of power,” said NAACP branch President Henry Allen. “Those people have been around forever and will continue to be around forever. But the majority of Americans want the same thing – a peaceful community that involves all of us."

“Our review of these proceedings has raised grave legal concerns, including knowing presentation of false witness testimony, erroneous instructions on the law, and preferential treatment of Mr. Wilson by the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office," wrote NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund president Sherrilyn Ifill.

A gas tax that fully corrected for the social impact of car reliance would upend life as we know it.

In the wake of the tragedy, many publications across the West have rushed to print reproductions of Charlie Hebdo covers as proof that terrorist violence cannot dampen free expression. Such homage to the magazine in its agony is in one sense fitting and proper, but in another sense it is the precise opposite of what the living Charlie was about.