Reporter Stephanie Hanes writes in the Christian Science Monitor about the plight of Dominican-Haitians, who are basically stateless, because the government of the Dominican Republic refuses to acknowledge them as citizens:

"Andre Jean, now 73, came in 1956 across this Michigan-size island of Hispaniola to the Dominican Republic from his home country, Haiti, to cut cane - part of a wave of Haitian sugar cane workers invited by the government of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. Sugar was the country's big business back then, and it needed labor. Haiti, led by its own dictator, was happy to oblige.

" 'Trujillo sent the trucks to pick us up,' says Mr. Jean, who ended up at this sugar plantation, 27 miles outside the capital, Santo Domingo. He cut cane for decades, a brutally hot and physically demanding job. And he has never left.The sugar industry has declined dramatically - but every day Jean still walks to the fields with his machete, to earn some change cutting weeds."

Carmen Dolores Hernandez writes a profile of the Afrolatina academician and activist Miriam Jimenez for El Nuevo Día.

The article can be viewed here.

The article notes that Miriam Jimenez grew up in New York City in neighborhoods where African Americans and Puerto Ricans lived in close proximity. These neighborhoods helped her to understand herself as a puerto rican of African descent: an understanding which has influenced her work in places like the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Jimenez has just completed co-editing the book, The Afro-Latin@ Reader: History and Culture in the United States.

"The Statute of Racial Equality, soon to be signed into law in Brazil, is at the centre of a controversy between those who consider it a historical achievement, like the abolition of slavery in 1888, and those who see it as failing to satisfy the demands of the black movement," writes Fabiana Frayssinet in an article for IPS.

"The ceremony at which Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will sign the statute into law, scheduled for Jul. 20, will not be the brilliant occasion hoped for by the government's Special Secretariat for the Promotion of Racial Equality (SEPPIR).

"After nearly two decades of debate, the statute approved by Congress on Jun. 16 has not left everyone happy.

"It is 'a watered-down text that does not include some of the major demands of the social movements linked to the cause of black people' and also 'waters down political aspects,' the Collective of Black Entities (CEN) said in a declaration.

"CEN, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), was referring to the suppression of clauses recognising the nature and origins of racism, which it regards as decisive for 'properly overcoming it.'

"According to the state Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), 50.6 percent of Brazil's population describes itself as Black. In spite of this, the term "race" was expunged from most of the text, Marcos Rezende, general coordinator of CEN, told IPS."

Dia de la Etnia parade in Colon/Celebration of Black Ethnicity Day in Colón, Republic of Panamá. May 30, 2010

"This law was passed in 2000 with the activism and dedication of Mr. Claral Richards who is considered the Nelson Mandela of Panama for not giving up on this important recognition.

"We pay tribute to the millions of unrecognized African ancestors whose sweat and blood created the infrastructure of colonial society and whose unremunerated labor made possible the wealth of Europe and European America. The Panama Railroad was built by Blacks and Chinese for the sole purpose of facilitating access to the California gold rush for East Coast North-Americans.  It was a mostly Afro-Antillian labor force that dug the Panama Canal. The Fundación Etnia Negra de Panamá honors the 500 year history of the Afro-coloniales and the Afro-Antillanos in the Republic of Panamá.
 
"It is a time of reflection of who we are as a people in Panama."

Peru's minorities battle racism

"Last November, Peru became the first country in the region to apologise to its African-descended population for centuries of abuse, exclusion and discrimination," Dan Collyns notes in an article on the BBC News website.

"Yet the country is considered one of the most backward nations in the Americas when it comes to legislation against racism, and promoting equal opportunities.

" 'In the fight against racial discrimination we've come up against certain limits,' said Mayta Capac Alatrista, director of the Institute for the Development of Andean, Amazonian and Afro-Peruvian Peoples."