Portside

The headlines regarding the "border crisis" caused by the thousands of unaccompanied Central American children crossing the U.S. border have faded, but not so the problems that forced them to embark upon their dangerous journeys. U.S. government officials are adopting an "out of sight, out of mind" approach to a problem that has deep roots, including the destabilizing role of successive U.S. administrations in Central America.

According to a report by the Restaurant Opportunity Center United (ROC), workers who like female restaurant workers rely on tips to make a living experience twice as much sexual harassment as those earning minimum wage. The report, "The Glass Floor: Sexual Harassment in the Restaurant Industry," asserts laws that allow employers to pay "tipped" workers below the minimum wage place female restaurant workers in a "uniquely vulnerable position."

Last week Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier died, signaling the passing of the last Duvalier to rule Haiti. But corruption in Haiti is still rampant, and the U.S.-backed regime of President Michel Martelly uses the political toolbox developed by the Duvaliers to control the country. "Papa Doc" and "Baby Doc" Duvalier are dead; but Duvalierism lives on.

A ProPublica analysis of killings by police shows outsize risk for young black males.

When President Obama took office, there were five million Americans at home all day who are now, sadly, not at home

In this view, hand stencils and animal paintings in Europe and Asia, separated by some 13,000 kilometers, have a common, far deeper origin in Africa.

The prescription, he argues in "Being Mortal," is to rethink our priorities for the dying—and give 'em something to live for.

The point isn’t whether Obama is or isn’t a radical. It’s that we ourselves need to be.

Reader Comments - Towards a Socialist America; War on the Islamic State; Ferguson New Voter Registration; Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism; Economy - Still Failing; People's Climate March; War and Climate Change; Berkeley Free Speech Movement; Crime Fiction; Work, Leisure, & Consumption; Israel 'Blacklist'; An Israel Equal for All; Importance of Brazil's Elections; Announcements - Race, Policing & Civil Rights-Oct 14; Paint the Town Red-Oct 22-both Brooklyn

Herein lay the difference between my son's black childhood and my own. Not only was I assaulted by the n-word so much earlier in life - at age 7, while visiting relatives in Memphis - but I also had many other experiences that differentiated my life from the lives of my white childhood friends. There was no way that they would "forget" that I was different. The times, in fact, dictated that they should not forget; our situation would be unavoidably "racial."