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A sledgehammer of a word.

Article Excerpt
I was a panelist for the roundtable economic justice workshop about wealth inequalities. I work for the St. Louis office of the American Friends Service Committee; one of our campaigns is called "Life over Debt." The campaign emphasizes Africa's crushing debt burden in calling for the cancellation of unfair debt held by international financial institutions. I was a little nervous as I always am when I do public speaking but I was enjoying and learning. I was one of three Black people in a crowded room but I'm used to that. Being Black often means sharing space with those that share your American experience, but not your African American experience. Sometimes something really ugly happens. Sometimes something mildly ugly happens. But the vast majority of the time, nothing ugly happens at all. As a result, it is always jolting when something weird comes (seemingly) out of nowhere.

We were into the Q and A session when 1 was confronted with the word "Negro." It was not a word I was expecting to hear in a discussion titled "Reversing Wealth Inequalities" but there it was, placidly offered up to me like any other word. "Okay,...

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