Taking a stand to preserve African culture

Working on "Taking a stand to preserve African culture" for Associated Content I found some great online resources for Sapelo Island and its Gullah culture. Gullah is a West African creole still spoken today on Sapelo Island which has the last intact Gullah community. At one time the Atlantic coastal islands stretching from North Carolina to Florida were Gullah communities. Enslaved Africans were brought to these islands predominately to farm rice. Because of the isolation of these islands, for instance you can only reach Sapelo Island by ferry, these Africans were able to retain much of their culture. Mass tourism and resort development have changed the face of these islands. Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization Society was established to preserve the island's African heritage and protect the rights of the descendants and their land. SICARS is doing some wonderful things for the people of Sapelo Island and anyone can be a member.

For many folks Julie Dash's movie Daughters of the Dust was their introduction to the Gullah culture. I found a really neat slide show/movie called The Gullah-Geechee Culture: Saving The Soul produced by the Cox News service who publishes among things The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The visual presentation along with the music from the McIntosh County Shouters will have you clapping and swaying and planning your trip to Sapelo Island.

Mary Jane Volkmann was selected to be the artist in residence at Sapelo Island this past year. She's a lovely person and a great artist who predominantly paints in oils and acrylics capturing "nature's gentle breeze as well as man's resplendent soul" in her portraits. She lived in southern Africa for 28 years. One of her creative projects was to design stamps for Namibia. You can find them on her website. They are beautiful. I could go on and on about Mary Jane Volkmann.

Racial concepts and the Jena six

I wrote "Racial concepts and the Jena six," for The Christian Science Sentinel, in response to the racial unrest in Jena, Louisiana that made international news. Working on this piece I learned that individuals are beginning to explore the issue of race and racism from a more heightened and sober perspective.

The PBS special, RACE-The Power of Illusion explores the concept of race.

In the special, Biological Anthropologist, Alan Goodman said, "To understand why the idea of race is a biological myth requires a major paradigm shift, a shift in perspective...race is not based on biology but race is rather an idea that we ascribe to biology." Speaking to this fact of race as an idea or concept, Sociologist, Melvin Oliver said, "The markers of race, skin color, hair texture, the things we identify as the racial markers, mean nothing unless they are given social meaning and unless there’s public policy and private actions that act upon those characteristics.”

RACE-The Power of Illusion is an interactive site. You'll find a list of background readings, resources for teachers and discussion guides. Check it out.

I have the habit of addressing troubling local and global challenges from a spiritual perspective. Doing so has brought me much peace and healing.

Spirituality.com is a wonderful resource. The website is designed to heal, inspire, and guide you on your spiritual journey through the many resources of The Christian Science Publishing Society. You'll find links to read the Bible as well as Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.

Foreclosure on the rise

I discovered some wonderful resources in researching high cost mortgage loans and foreclosure for a piece I wrote "Foreclosures on the Rise: Is the American Dream Possible for Immigrants Today?" published in The AFRIcan Magazine.

NCRC (National Community Reinvestment Coalition) was founded in 1990 to unite efforts around the nation to increase the flow of private capital into traditionally underserved communities. In July 2007 they published a report "Income is no shield against racial differences in lending: a comparison of high cost lending in metropolitan areas." Their website gives you access to a number of helpful resources on this subject and the prevailing racial disparities.

ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) also produced a report accessible from its website: "Foreclosure exposure: study reveals minorities receive a higher percentage of high-cost loans."

ACORN is the nation's largest community organization of low and moderate income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities. Since 1970, ACORN has grown to more than 350,000 member families, organized in 850 neighborhood chapters in over 100 cities across the U.S. and in cities in Argentina, Peru, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Canada.

NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)produced a very insightful piece on their website by Nikitra S. Bailey, Financial Apartheid: Subprime Mortgage Lending and the Failed Promise of Sustainable Homeownership for People of Color.

The mission of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.

Forbes.com is running a Special Report marking its 10th anniversary entitled The American Dream. Edited by David M. Ewalt and Michael Noer, the report begins by reminding us that "America is a land built by immigrants, a patchwork of different cultures and creeds." "But despite many differences, it's held together by a common thread: the promise of a better life," said Ewalt and Noer. "To kick off a yearlong celebration of the 10th anniversary of Forbes.com, we asked more than 60 great achievers, including actors, artists, politicians and executives, to answer the question "What is the American Dream?"

Center for Responsible Lending a resource for predatory lending opponents published an insightful article on its website entitled: African-American Homes at Risk.

Originally printed in The Christian Science Monitor, the article Credit: beyond predator and prey by Ruby Bennett now available on Spirituality.com offers an uplifting spiritual perspective to addressing this issue.

Women for Women International

Women for Women International is an amazing organization. WFWI is an international non profit organzation that works with women survivors of war. Based in Washington, D.C and London, WFWI works in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Kosovo, Nigeria, Rwanda and Sudan.

Check out my article Women for Women International: A Guiding light for Women Survivors in The AFRican Magazine to find out more about WFWI.

Working on this piece I learned that WFWI partners with a number of international organizations to further its mission of aiding women in conflict and post conflict communities and countries.

Doctors without Borders/Medicins Sans Frontieres an independent international medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural or man-made disasters, or exclusion from health care in more than 70 countries and Heifer International an international sustainable development organization whose mission is to end world hunger by donating a wide variety of animals (and trees) to families around the world to improve their standard of living, are two of the many organizations that partner with WFWI.

In researching WFWI I also learned about UNIFEM (United Nation's Development Fund for Women) portal on women, peace and security called WomenWarPeace.org. On its Welcome page, WomenWarPeace.org states that its intention is to address the lack of consolidated data on the impact of armed conflict on women and girls as noted by Security Council resolution 1325 (2000). The portal is meant to serve as a centralized hub of information from a wide variety of sources, with links to reports and data from the UN system to information and analysis from experts, academics, NGOs and media sources.