From one way of reading this commentary, I agree just about 100%. From another read, it got me thinking about the premise. Take the quote by Susan Rice and her attending meetings at the State Department. About her not seeing others that looked like her sitting around the table. I imagined myself sitting at that table and finding most looking like me but not thinking like me. That I wouldn't identify with them. So, are Susan Rice and I sitting at the same table (assuming I was qualified to sit there)? Or what? Maybe it's just about what different communities find interesting when they have opportunities rather than being attracted to what some say they ought to be interested in -- even if the rational argument makes compelling sense.
So true. One of the 7 tenets of Bayard Rustin's organization, Black Americans to Support Israel Committee was "Arab oil prices have had a disastrous effect upon blacks in America and in Africa." I don't think many were thinking about the issue on that level.
Oct 18, 2022·edited Oct 18, 2022Liked by Free Black Thought
English is so widespread as a lingua franca that the need to learn a foreign language to a "business" level is almost non-existent. However, I would say that there's a high return in terms of goodwill on monoglot English speakers learning even just a few friendly words and phrases in other languages. In my experience, there are also so many non-native English speakers out there online yearning to chat with native English speakers on a social level. Thanks for the article.
Can the HBCUs be sistered with foreign universities and become the intellection, STEM and business centers of Africa and the global African diaspore (North America, South America, Caribbean, Europe, Asia)? This would make the HBCUs far more internationally prestigious, respected and influential. Including in STEM research. Vast numbers of high performing foreign African Ancestry students would over a generation likely generate many billions of dollars for collective HBCU endowments.
Can the USA spend many tens of billions of dollars to identify, develop, empower talented African ancestry children abroad and encourage them to study, work or conduct business in the USA?
Many of them won't come to the USA. But if a large percentage come, it would be a large positive technological shock to the US economy.
Plus Americans can make a fortune trading and doing business with African ancestry foreigners. Can African Americans be at the forefront of this?
What do Americans, particularly those who identify as black, think about the disparity in resources allocated by the USA and other rich western nations to Ukraine compared to places with even worse humanitarian crises like in the horn of Africa and various parts of the Middle East? I would be interested in knowing, not to pick a fight.
From one way of reading this commentary, I agree just about 100%. From another read, it got me thinking about the premise. Take the quote by Susan Rice and her attending meetings at the State Department. About her not seeing others that looked like her sitting around the table. I imagined myself sitting at that table and finding most looking like me but not thinking like me. That I wouldn't identify with them. So, are Susan Rice and I sitting at the same table (assuming I was qualified to sit there)? Or what? Maybe it's just about what different communities find interesting when they have opportunities rather than being attracted to what some say they ought to be interested in -- even if the rational argument makes compelling sense.
So true. One of the 7 tenets of Bayard Rustin's organization, Black Americans to Support Israel Committee was "Arab oil prices have had a disastrous effect upon blacks in America and in Africa." I don't think many were thinking about the issue on that level.
English is so widespread as a lingua franca that the need to learn a foreign language to a "business" level is almost non-existent. However, I would say that there's a high return in terms of goodwill on monoglot English speakers learning even just a few friendly words and phrases in other languages. In my experience, there are also so many non-native English speakers out there online yearning to chat with native English speakers on a social level. Thanks for the article.
Can the HBCUs be sistered with foreign universities and become the intellection, STEM and business centers of Africa and the global African diaspore (North America, South America, Caribbean, Europe, Asia)? This would make the HBCUs far more internationally prestigious, respected and influential. Including in STEM research. Vast numbers of high performing foreign African Ancestry students would over a generation likely generate many billions of dollars for collective HBCU endowments.
Can the USA spend many tens of billions of dollars to identify, develop, empower talented African ancestry children abroad and encourage them to study, work or conduct business in the USA?
Many of them won't come to the USA. But if a large percentage come, it would be a large positive technological shock to the US economy.
Plus Americans can make a fortune trading and doing business with African ancestry foreigners. Can African Americans be at the forefront of this?
What do Americans, particularly those who identify as black, think about the disparity in resources allocated by the USA and other rich western nations to Ukraine compared to places with even worse humanitarian crises like in the horn of Africa and various parts of the Middle East? I would be interested in knowing, not to pick a fight.