The recent revelation of the racist rant, irrational reasoning and inequitable reordering of the political map of Los Angeles by a group of Latina/o city council and labor leaders offers useful insights and lessons in racial, racialized and racist sentiments, thought and practice in American politics, regardless of the local and Latino context in which it occurred.
Since the transforming struggles of the Sixties, it has been for us in the organization Us, both a reaffirmation of our commitment and a reenforcing reminder to begin our day with the centering thought and declaration: “it is a good day to struggle.”
The rapid rise of the Swahili language to global reach and significance reflected in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designating July 7, 2022, as World Kiswahili Language Day brings with it a profound sense of elation and satisfaction of work well done to all those in Africa, the U.S. and around the world who worked hard to achieve this rightful recognition of it.
In our long, difficult, dangerous and demanding struggles to liberate ourselves as African peoples, to regain our freedom we had at birth and enjoyed for thousands of years before Europe, colonialism, imperialism, racism and the resultant rot and retardation of human relations, there are countless men and women whose lives and deaths offer libraries of lessons, models and mirrors of living and dying in rightful and righteous ways.