“Adopted,” the film about transracial and international adoption that so intrigued ARP readers, is now available for digital download. For those who found the price of the DVDs prohibitive, here is a way to learn for less. Read more and download it.
NPR follows a Massachusetts electrician, working to keep his Native Nimpuc language alive:
Some scholars estimate that at the time of Columbus, there were roughly 300 native languages spoken in North America. Many of them are now extinct. But David White, an electrician in the small town of Brimfield, Mass., is on a mission — to save his native language, Nipmuc, from dying.
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“When I was young, I didn’t hear the language at all until, I think it was when I was around 10 or 11, when I started going to powwows,” White says. Read more…
NPR also wonders “Why Don’t More Black Children Swim?”
For many African-Americans, swimming is economically and culturally out of reach. A recent survey commissioned by USA Swimming found that 60 percent of black children don’t know how to swim. Hampton University assistant professor and Director of Aquatics Jodi Jensen wants to reverse the trend. Jensen, who is white, talks about her efforts, as featured recently in the Washington Post Magazine. Read more…
Heading to Colonial Williamsburg for your summer family vacation? The popular family historical destination has added new African-American programs:
The programs include a new interactive walking history tour, “In Their Own Words: African Americans in the American Revolutionary Era,” a reenactment of a debate about slavery between George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette, and a black preacher’s sermon. An attraction called Great Hopes Plantation showcases how African Americans in rural areas — both free blacks and slaves — shaped their community, with a look at African influences on American cooking, the lives of enslaved children on plantations and the struggles of free blacks. Read more…
my stepdaughter and i were watching the olympics last summer when she asked, “why are all the runners black and the swimmers are white?” it does seem a little strange, especially to a seven-year-old. i didn’t honestly know, so i said so, and wondered aloud instead: “do you think maybe it’s because certain races are just better at certain sports? or do you think maybe it’s easier for certain races to get involved in certain sports, for other reasons? or maybe it’s just a coincidence?” the least i can do is get her thinking.
that all having been said, my SD is on a swim team herself, and although she and most of her teammates are white, at a large invitational meet last year, a very large number (i would say the majority) of the swimmers were black, and the teams came from all over the country.