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Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Urge President Obama to End the U.S. Boycott of the Conference on Racism
A series of article have surfaced, urging the Obama administration to attend the
United Nations' Durban Review conference.
Marlene Nadle writes in "Will Obama be a no-go to racism conference?" that "President Barack Obama's position on attending the conference translates roughly into: Do it our way
or we won't play. He has already gotten all references to Israel, to reparations for slavery, and to a proposed ban on
speech defaming any religion dropped from the conference's draft document. Yet, he is still unwilling to have the United
States attend. Even if the administration bullies its way into getting its final points, it is not really a win for the United
States." In "Race and the Obama Administration," the actor and activist Danny Glover writes, "This should be a moment for the United States to rejoin the global
struggle against racism, the struggle that the Bush administration so arrogantly abandoned. I hope President Obama will agree
that the United States must participate with other nations in figuring out the tough issues of how to overcome racism and
other forms of discrimination and intolerance, and how to provide repair to victims. Our country certainly has much to learn;
and maybe, for the first time in a long time, we have something by way of leadership to share with the rest of the world in
continuing our long struggle to overcome." And Aisha Brown writes in the Washington DC Examiner that:
"With only a week until the April 20-24, 2009, Durban Review
Conference the Obama administration has yet to reverse its decision despite requests from leaders of the G-20, the European
Union, and the African Diaspora. A choice that will decidedly negate the recent strides made in U.S. foreign
diplomacy.
"During his first European tour; the president
spoke candidly about the United States’ past arrogance humbled himself at the world’s stage. However,
if Mr. Obama is expected to repair America’s tarnished reputation, he must acknowledge and act upon his campaign promises.
He must be a president of both style and substance.  "Although the 2008 election represents an unprecedented
civil rights victory for this nation; President Obama's mere presence at the highest level of State is not enough to absolve
centuries of racism and oppression. We need our president to actively pursue 'the path of a more perfect
union' at home and abroad.
"To Urge President Obama to Send an Official U.S. Delegation to the Durban Review Conference
Please Contact the White House Comment Line at 202-456-1111."
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Visit www.afropresencia.com to find listings and links to areas where you can find out
about upcoming events, as well as links to articles, photos and videos on Life in the Black Americas.
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The Sound of My Footsteps: Narratives of Migratory Jamaican immigrants
Interviews with over 30 Jamaican immigrants on their
pre-migratory perceptions of New York and England Click
here to view and purchase the book.
The Afro-Latin@ Reader:
History and Culture in the United States
 The Afro-Latin@ Reader focuses attention on a large, vibrant, yet oddly invisible community
in the United States: people of African descent from Latin America and the Caribbean. The presence of Afro-Latin@s
in the United States (and throughout the Americas) belies the notion that Blacks and Latin@s are two distinct categories
or cultures. Afro-Latin@s are uniquely situated to bridge the widening social divide between Latin@s and African
Americans. At the same time, their experiences reveal pervasive racism among Latin@s and ethnocentrism among African
Americans. Offering insight into Afro-Latin@ life and new ways to understand culture, ethnicity, nation, identity,
and antiracist politics, The Afro-Latin@ Reader presents a kaleidoscopic view of Black Latin@s in the United
States. It addresses history, music, gender, class, and media representations in more than sixty selections, including
scholarly essays, memoirs, newspaper and magazine articles, poetry, short stories, and interviews. Click here to view and purchase the book.
African American History Day by Day: A Reference Guide to Events by Karen Juanita Carrillo The proof
of any group's importance to history is in the detail, a fact made plain by this informative book's day-by-day documentation
of the impact of African Americans on life in the United States. One of the easiest ways to grasp any aspect of history
is to look at it as a continuum. African American History Day by Day: A Reference Guide to Events provides just
such an opportunity. Click here to view and purchase the book.
The
View from Chocó: The Afro-Colombian past, their lives in the present, and their hopes for the future by Karen Juanita Carrillo The View from Chocó: The Afro-Colombian past, their lives in the
present, and their hopes for the future is an introduction to the lives of Blacks in Colombia. Afro-Colombians
live in a resource-rich yet remote region of Colombia. They only recently won recognition as one of that nation's
distinct ethnic groups. But Colombia's on-going civil war has led many Afro-Colombians to reach even farther than
their nation's borders for recognition: many have made their way to the United States as refugees and as political
activists working for peace in their homeland. The View from Chocó introduces the lives and struggles of a too-long neglected community of Colombian Blacks. Click here to view and purchase the book.
Raise Your Brown Black Fist is a collection of essays
written by Kevin Alberto Sabio during his time as a Contributing Writer  for an online magazine.
The book combines his two article series, "Black
vs Brown" and "Black Thoughts: A Political Ideological Perspective
for Afrolatinos" into one volume, plus three other miscellaneous entries. The book
is currently available through his publisher, AuthorHouse. Click
the logo above to view and purchase the book.
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