Portside

Many noble old ideas about free speech don’t compute in the age of social media. The notion that a “marketplace of ideas” will elevate the truth is flatly belied by the virality of fake news and the fact that the marketplace is no longer public.

There were no federal laws concerning immigration until 1924. When a massive influx of new immigrant groups came at the turn of the 20th century — Italians from Southern Europe and Jews from Eastern Europe — a backlash developed. A new law required for the first time that immigrants to the U.S. have visas, introducing the concept of “having papers” to American immigration policy.

Puerto Ricans on the island are the most heavily taxed of all U.S. citizens. From 2013 to 2014, 105 different taxes were raised in Puerto Rico. Over a 19-year period, from 1990 to 2009, Puerto Rico paid more federal taxes than six U.S. states. Puerto Rico is projected to have the worst economy on the entire planet in 2018.

King’s critique of power was never purely about race: The collapse of independent media is partly what got us here. It was the independent and radical left media that forced mainstream media to cover the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement, poverty and the fight against it. Over the last 15 years, more than half the jobs in the news industry had disappeared, media consolidation will quicken this trend.

Reader Comments: Nuclear Disarmament - Again on the Agenda; Trump's Racism - recalling Martin Niemöller's dire warning in Nazi Germany; Radical lessons of Martin Luther King; #TimesUp; Traditional Labor Organizing - sharp disagreement with Portside Labor post; Sports in Colleges; Oprah - more disagreement with Portside posts; Grim Times in Austria; Announcements: The '60s-Years that Changed America; Concert for Puerto Rico; War or Peace with North Korea? and more....

Police have radically cut back their use of stop-and-frisk policies. To the surprise of some, crime didn’t spike, but tumbled yet again.

Once a year Portside asks readers for their support. This is that time. Like everyone, we’ve been straining to keep up with astounding developments over the past year. We've also made a lot of changes, to create better tools to help meet the needs of the moment. So if you haven't donated yet, it's not too late.

For Lorraine Hansberry, art was not simply an expression of her civil rights concerns but a space where she could wage racial and gender battles and find resolutions that were more liberating than the law.

Kenneth Marcus has a history of opposing affirmative action and attacking the First Amendment rights of Israel critics.

Pseudo-scientific research, lost Aryan super-civilizations and biblical giants.