Racial & Economic Justice

The following is an announcement from the Carrboro Cybrary:

On Wednesday, February 1 at 7:00 pm, the community is invited to the Century Center for a discussion about the social, cultural, and political issues surrounding the growth of the state's Hispanic immigrant population as viewed through the context of Esmeralda Santiago's memoir When I Was Puerto Rican .

Latinos living in North Carolina face both tangible struggles involving language and education and more intangible questions of cultural identity and authenticity. The complexities of the immigrant experience are at the heart of Esmeralda Santiago's memoir When I Was Puerto Rican and are the focus of Carrboro's next Community Book Forum. On Wednesday, February 1 at 7:00 pm, the community is invited to the Century Center for a discussion about the social, cultural, and political issues surrounding the growth of the state's Hispanic immigrant population. The discussion will touch on Santiago's book, the current debate surrounding immigrants in the state's higher education system, and the experience of Latinos in our own communities.

This announcement via e-mail from Al McSurely:

I hope you will post an open invitation to everyone about the 23rd Annual Martin Luther King Service at First Baptist on Monday, January 16th at 11 am. Dr. William Joseph Barber, Jr. will be speaking on War and Poverty. He recently won the Presidency of the State Conference of the NAACP, ousting the sitting President, Skip Alston, from Greensboro in October 2005.

Dr. Barber held the Statewide Directorship of the N.C. Human Relations Commission in the early l990's. He is an outspoken opponent against the War in Iraq, and takes most of his scriptural texts from the Old Testament prophets, like Dr. King. The State Conference of the NAACP has over 80 Branches, over 15,000 members.

Dr. Barber was strongly supported by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Branch 5689, under the leadership of Fred Battle, and the Northern Orange Branch, under the leadership of Keith Cook. Dr. Barber has named Al McSurely, local civil rights attorney, as the Chair of the Legal Redress Committee.

Kudos to the Daily Tarheel for running an article today in both English and Spanish. Unfortunately the Spanish version is online-only which is probably not the best way to reach all those Latino workers on campus, who might actually be interested in the subject matter: one woman's story how she became an immigrant and eventually a citizen.

Attending Carrboro's swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday reminded me how important John Herrerra's (re)election is to the Latino community. The event was attended by visible state-wide leaders like Matty Lazo-Chadderton (Director of Hispanic/Latino Affairs in the N.C. Senate's Office of the President Pro Tempore) and I spent at least a third of my evening practicing my rusty Spanish. It was a great feeling to know what a good example a small town like Carrboro can be to the rest of the state. And also a reminder that yo necesito practicar hablando español!