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  • Politics Is Like Hiring A Hitman
    by Scott Woods inPolitical on2020-08-13

    For me, politics is like hiring a hitman. I have values and things I care about. I care enough about them to at least bother voting for 5 minutes every year for one issue or another. And because I care at least that much, I vote for people who align with the ability to realize the things I care about.

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  • Punching Above Our Weight
    by Roger Madison Jr. inPolitical on2020-07-24

    I believe our vote is the punctuation of our voice. Without that resounding exclamation mark, I believe our voices are just incoherent noise.

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  • BLACK PROGRESS AMIDST SOCIAL CHAOS
    by Roger Madison Jr. inPolitical on2020-06-16

    Recent events have raised the profile of historical injustice and inequities here in the USA. The entire world has taken note of the fact that BLACK LIVES MATTER.   We invite all of our friends to engage in actions that result in the greatest movement for change in our history. It is imperative that we take advantage of this opportunity to affect a positive change by ACTING IN OUR SELF-INTERESTS.

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  • Living in a Black No-Man's Land
    by Roger Madison Jr. inOur Community on2019-10-28

    There are many narratives that define the Black experience in America in this 2nd decade of the 21st century. Our striving over the centuries of our sojourn in this nation is a tapestry of every human experience -- oppression, enslavement, forced assimilation, dehumanization, exclusion, segregation, isolation, struggle, perseverance, achievement, excellence, celebration, mourning, despair, progress, setbacks, lynching, assassination, genocide, terror, self-hatred, low esteem, pride,...

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  • Fighting Racism
    by Scott Woods inOur Community on2018-10-25

    I had a boss who was racist. Not an outright bigot, of course; her toolbox was more subtle than most. We bumped heads a lot over inconsequential things. She frequently couldn’t keep my name out her mouth. Lot of gaslighting. You know…2018 style. I tried a lot of ways to combat or navigate her issues. None of them worked, and that’s saying a lot because I’m really good at fighting racism. But at the end of the day – every day – she was my boss, I had to deal with her, and that was that. Finally I...

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African American Monuments & Statues: Afro-Brazilians and Zumbi

I was reading an article about what foreign languages African American should teach their children when I read this paragraph:

"The conservative estimate is that half the population in Brazil is of African descent – which means that Brazil has a black population that is almost three times the size of the African-American population in the United States. Brazil has the largest number of African descendents in the Americas. In the world, Brazil is second only to Nigeria in terms of the number of black people living within its borders."

I had no idea that there were that many people of African descent located in Brazil so I decided to look into it a little further, enlighten myself and make a point to feature Afro-Brazilians in my next couple of posts on the blog. The first is a photo of a monument/statue dedicated to Zumbi. Zumbi is celebrated as a hero, freedom fighter, and symbol of freedom amongst Afro-Brazilians in Brazil.

Zumbi dos Palmares (1655 - November 20, 1695)

 

Zumbi has become a hero of the twentieth-century Afro-Brazilian political movement. November 20th, is celebrated as a day of Black Awareness "Consciência Negra" primarily in Rio De Janeiro. Below you will find some additional resources where you can learn more about the Afro-Brazilian icon.

 

Resources

Zumbi: Freedom Fighter

Zumbi and Palmares