Washington, D.C. USA: In November 1996, the OAA sponsored a meeting at Howard University in Washington between a group of about 15 of us African Americans, and about 15 Afro-Latinos who were here attending a conference of the Import-Export Bank. The Afro-Latinos were from Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Hondouras, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The African Americans included Howard University students, OAA members like myself and what I would call regular DC residents.

We have a lot to learn about each other.

In Spanish and English and interpretations between the two, we started off discussing the basic topic of: what it's like to be black in our respective countries, but it became a discussion about our misperceptions of each other. We African Americans were stunned when a Afro-Honduran described how surprised he was during a visit to the Smithsonian, one of our national museums, that the black people held almost all of the lower level jobs, such as janitor, security guard and cashier, while higher level jobs such as curator or even tour guide were almost all held by whites. He said he had heard that America was an integrated country where blacks held high positions, and yet it seemed to be little different from Central America.

My reaction and that of the other African Americans was, why was he surprised. After all, this IS America. We said that while the American propaganda machine may say this is a country of equality for all, that is not true. We explained to them that when we work in just about any white-run institution in America, with few exceptions, we hold the lower-level jobs and whites hold the higher-level jobs. One can go to almost any office of government or corporate America and find that there are black secretaries or clerks. It is rare in those institutions to find that the boss or someone else in authority is a person of color.

On the other side...we African Americans confessed to the Afro-Latinos most of us did not know that they existed.

"I grew up here in Washington, D.C.," said one African American woman. "We never knew they had black people in South America. We thought that you all were like, hispanics, Mexicans, you know, Indian and Spanish people. "

I was nodding my head with the rest of the Americans. I thought they were all Mexican-like people too. I told of the time several years ago when I was in a record store and saw an album cover with Afro-Brazilian Milton Nascimento on the cover. I bought the record, mainly because I wanted to hear the music of a black man from South America. It was only later that I realized that there are more people of African descent in South America than in North America.

"But the United States is a country of educated people," protested one Afro-Latino, "How could you not know that there were black people in South America."

"Well, first, " I replied, "Most Americans--black or white--are interested mainly in the United States. Indeed, they're interested mainly in their own communities. They know there are blacks in Africa and in the Caribbean, but when they think of South Americans they think of Mexicans."

I added that was one good reason for establishing the OAA--the Organization of Africans in the Americas so that we can get to know each other. An Afro-Argentine professor noted how in her country some Argentines claim they don't have black people in the country. She said Argentina's President, Carlos Menem, had recently appeared on television saying that the issue of blacks was a Brazilian issue.

"How do you think that it make you feel," she said, "To hear the president of your country announce to the world that you don't exist."

We also learned that we have have many of the same problems. Just as in the United States it is a growing problem of black children born into families with no father, we learned it is a problem in South America. An Afro-Peruvian woman said the typical black family in Peru is a mother and her children. She said that in general, black men in Peru father children and then have nothing more to do with them.

Well, in this country, the average black child today is born outside of marriage. And in Washington, D.C. these days around 70% of black children are born to mothers who are not married to the baby's father. And even though Washington is the capital of the world's most advanced country, in black Washington's poorer neighborhoods, the infant mortality rate is same as that of the Central American country of Honduras.

It all said to me we need to get to know each other better, and perhaps together we can solve some of these problems that seem to afflict all of us, no matter where we live.