Portside

White supremacy has dominated the politics of America resulting in the creation of racist laws and cultural practices designed to subjugate non-whites. The emblem of the confederacy, the stars and bars, in all its manifestations, has long been the most recognizable banner of this political ideology. It's the banner of racial intimidation and fear whose popularity experiences an uptick whenever black Americans appear to be making gains economically and politically.

The meaning of the Confederate flag is best discerned in the words of those who bore it. In praising the Klan's terrorism, Confederate veterans and their descendants displayed a remarkable consistency. White domination was the point. Slavery failed. Domination prevailed nonetheless. The Confederate flag should come down because it is embarrassing to all Americans. The fact that it still flies, that one must debate its meaning in 2015, reflects an incredible ignorance.

Reader Comments: The Racial Divide; Take Down the Flag; Call It What It Is, Or Be Complicit; The Charleston Massacre - A Hate Crime; Racial Violence in America; Greek Debt Truth Committee - Debt Cannot and Should Not Be Paid; American Century has Plunged the World into Crisis; Rachel Dolezal; Israeli Nukes; BDS is costing Israel big money; Alexander Hamilton and Andrew Jackson; Announcement - Celebration of Danny Schechter's Life

It is time for change, time for the very best efforts of all who nurture hopes for a saner world.

Reader Comments: Bernie Sanders; Tamir Rice; Kalief Browder; Ella Baker; BDS; Low-Income Schools; Rachel Dolezal; TPP; Edward Snowden; Greece; Bessie; Okinawa; Puerto Rico; Jazz; Watts Rebellion; Immigration; Announcements: March to Shut Down Rikers; Detroit Tribute to Paul Robeson and His Work for Peace; Solidarity Delegation of 20 US Activists to Visit Venezuela

The Freedom Rides originated with a woman. Her name was Irene Morgan, and she was a 27-year-old wartime factory worker and mother of two traveling from Virginia to her home town of Baltimore on a July morning in 1944. Morgan, recovering from a miscarriage and unable to stand for any significant period of time, was sitting in the colored section of a Greyhound bus. At some point, she and her seatmate were asked to give up their seats to a white couple. She refused...

Reader Comments: Can Women End Korean War?; Countess vs. Communist-Battle to Become Madrid's Mayor; How the United States Strangled Puerto Rico; Obama's Human and Moral Challenge: Oscar López Rivera; The Press and Bernie Sanders; The Female Mathematician Who Changed the Course of Physics; Appeal by Dr. Kristin Neuhaus, successor to Dr. George Tiller; Cross Borders Concert at the Gaza Strip border; Today in History - Tiananmen Square Massacre; Angela Davis Acquitted

Although Puerto Ricans were granted US citizenship in 1917, the United States continued to exploit, oppress and eventually launch a "war" on the people of Puerto Rico to gain land and resources. The book, War Against All Puerto Ricans, is a vivid, detailed account of the brutal treatment of a people "liberated" from Spain only to be subjugated by the US.