Grassroots Organizing Shapes Response to Police Killing of Walter Scott

Kerry Taylor Facing South
North Charleston, South Carolina, has received strong praise for its handling of the fatal police shooting of 50-year-old African American Walter Scott. According to the media, the city's quick response saved it from becoming another Ferguson, MO. But, North Charleston's response should be understood not in contrast to Ferguson but in the context of Ferguson and a national upsurge of protest against racist policing.

Sexism Increases Suicide Risk in Young Women Worldwide

Jessica Valenti The Guardian
There are plenty of shocking statistics in a recently rediscovered 2014 study on suicide from the World Health Organization. The report found that suicides are responsible for half of all violent deaths in men and 71% of violent deaths in women. It also showed that globally, suicide is the second leading cause of death for all young people between the ages of 15 and 29 years old. Yet, somehow, it took us until now to notice just how badly it affects young women.

Shadowy Website Creates Blacklist of Pro-Palestinian Activists

Josh Nathan-Kazis Jewish Daily Forward
A new website called Canary Mission is publicizing the identities of pro-Palestinian student activists to prevent them from getting jobs after they graduate from college. But the website is keeping its own backers’ identity a secret. “It is your duty to ensure that today’s radicals are not tomorrow’s employees,” a female narrator intones in a slick video posted to the website’s YouTube account. The website has posted profiles of dozens of students and recent graduates.

Government Impunity and the Protection of Attica’s Ugly Past

Heather Ann Thompson TIME
It took more than 40 years, but Attica’s survivors and families of the deceased had finally convinced a judge to force the State of New York to release sealed records relating to deaths of some 39 inmates and staff following the 1971 prison uprising. But the documents released May 21 provide little information as to who was responsible for the dead and wounded when state officials decided to forcibly retake the prison, and why no one has been held accountable.

Friday Nite Videos -- May 29, 2015

Portside
Amy Schumer - Bill Cosby in the Court of Public Opinion. Movie: We Are Many. Democalypse 2016: Bernie Sanders. Stiller & Meara on Computer Dating. Margaret Atwood - First Writer for Future Library.

Democalypse 2016: Bernie Sanders

We've all become so accustomed to stage driven, focus group candidates that authenticity comes across as lunacy. Then there's Bernie, who honestly represents his political beliefs rather than playing a cynical political game.

Stiller & Meara on Computer Dating

It's 1967, and computer matchups have just taken all the messiness out of meeting the right person. Stiller and Meara were there to mark this cultural seachange. (In memory of Anne Meara, 1929-2015.)