Portside

The University of California, New York State, and Washington, DC move to increase the minimum wage. This continues a trend that is taking place across the country.

In this look at three new and “valuable contributions to our cultural thinking and political thinking on today’s feminist movement,” Rinku Sen finds much to praise; however, she criticizes these authors because they “treat these two realms as largely disconnected from each other.” That’s too bad, Sen adds, because the movement is strongest “when cultural and political interventions reinforce each other.”

The status of the controversial facility, along with its inhabitants, remains mired in delays, appeals and political dramas that make shutting the prison increasingly difficult to imagine.

The permanence of racial injustice makes the struggle for the future necessary today, says James Forman Jr. Over the next few weeks, The Atlantic will be publishing a series of responses to Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me. This is the first in a series. Readers are invited to send their own responses to hello@theatlantic.com, to follow along on Twitter at #BTWAM, or to read other responses to the book from Atlantic readers and contributors.

The rise of Black Lives Matter has presented opportunities for Clinton and her opponents, who are seeking to energize black voters to build on the multiethnic coalitions that twice elected Barack Obama. But the candidates have struggled to tap into a movement that has proven itself to be unpredictable and fiercely independent.

For years I’ve battled a driving anxiety. I want to get over it, but the mysterious death of Sandra Bland after a routine traffic stop in Texas reminds me that in black women’s lives, safety is an illusion.

According to a report released October 20th by the National Coalition for the Homeless at least 21 cities have passed ordinances designed to restrict where and how nonprofits and individuals can share food with the hungry. Increasingly, local governments are passing laws designed to keep the homeless and hungry "out of sight, out of mind." The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that 50 million Americans are struggling with food insecurity.