Portside

“Dismantle structures and systems designed and shaped by enslavement, colonialism and successive racially discriminatory policies and systems.”

“It’s not that Gen. Granger was giving information to the enslaved people. He was giving it to the masters” — at the barrel of a gun.

The federal government alone is capable of paying the bill. And, as the entity that created and maintains the black-white wealth gap, it should pay the debt.

It is somewhat ironic that thousands of Jews in Israel are getting reparations and passports from Germany because of expulsion, loss of property and persecution, yet Israel will not allow Palestinians to return to a land from which they were expelle

This year marks 100 years since the Tulsa Race Massacre, where roughly 300 people — predominantly Black people — were killed; Black churches, schools and businesses were burned to the ground, and the homes of Black people were looted.

When reality does not correspond to the facts on the ground, the U.S. left often responds like the fictional French intellectual who maunders: “I know what you are saying is true in fact, the question is—‘is it true in theory?’”

Climate change poses an existential threat. That doesn’t mean we should further empower an already bloated Pentagon.

I have lived it and I have suffered through it and I know that when people say “get in line,” there is no line. I am here to try to change the system so that people have a pathway and if they choose to become a citizen, they can.

The stakes for environmental racism need to be even higher than jail time. What if any company responsible for major ecological devastation was dissolved? Or politicians colluding with or enabling environmental destruction could not hold office?

Recognizing that enslaved men, women and children built many of the cities, rail lines and ports that fuel the American economy is a necessary part of any accounting for the legacy of slavery.