Portside

The New York governor is replacing elected representatives with private, unaccountable monopolists, and lawmakers across the US are doing the same thing. Too many decision-makers are ceding their policy to corporate power and private sector privileg

Universities giant and small, public and private, bring African-American men to campus at grotesque levels to earn the school millions in football and basketball revenues. Stories about academic freedom and free speech have been appearing in newspapers more frequently over the last few weeks. And curiously enough political actors on and off campus who traditionally have been least likely to be concerned about these subjects are becoming its major advocates.