The women of Umoja are survivors of rape and women who have been ostracised by their families and communities. In Umoja they have come together to form their own community, working for themselves making crafts and on the land. Their choice to stand independently of men has resulted in further abuse and threats but the women are determined to stay and make their community work.

Amp, over at Alas, a blog, has kindly agreed to host the August edition of the ERC (even though he has officially given up blogging). Here’s the call from Amp:

There’s no special theme required;we just want to see blog posts published since July 27th having to do with “creating a world free of racism.” Please submit links to any good posts you know of, by email, by leaving a comment with this post, or by using the submission form at the Blog Carnival “Erase Racism” page.

Deadline is August 26th, and if all goes well the carnival will be posted by the end of the day on August 27th.

The Afrospear Think Tank has started a new monthly carnival with rotating topics. The first carnival, titled The Mis-Education of the Negro in the 21st Century, will appear on Monday 3 September. Please send any submissions to afrospear@hotmail.com by Friday 31 August.

Some questions to consider courtesy of Asabanga:

Are we currently suffering from mis-education? What is your opinion and/or perspective on how our young are being educated? Are they being mis-educated and if so, what are the dynamics and results of this process of mis-education that you see? Does education have the power to change our lives and if so, do we, as a people, truly value and take advantage of that opportunity? What solutions and/or strategies do you propose to the education dilemma which is facing our community(ies)? It would be beneficial and enlightening to hear from different regions of the Diaspora and from the Motherland itself.

RaceWire, the ColorLines blog, has published the 15th Erase Racism Carnival. I could be mistaken, but I believe this is the largest carnival yet! Thanks to everyone at ColorLines who helped put it together and all the folks that contributed. Here is a snippet from the introduction:

This month we wanted to highlight some topics we feel don’t get enough time in the sun. So we sought out several pieces on topics that matter: Media Representations, the Green Economy and Black/Brown relations.

In addition, we grouped the blogs under a few other topics we hope you find pertinent and interesting:

–Race and the Green Economy
–Race, gender, and the media
–Black/Brown relations
–Historical identities
–Whiteness revisited
–Darfur

We still don’t have a host for the August edition. So if you are interested, please drop me a line (veganwonder [at] gmail.com).

from Sumoud:

A report issued by Defense for Children International (DCI), called “Children Behind Bars”, found that during 2006 and the first half of 2007, the vast majority of children apprehended by the Israeli forces were imprisoned. Only 3 to 5% of the juveniles abducted were granted bail pending trial.

DCI also noted that over 99% of the children tried pleaded guilty and the tiny minority that pleaded not guilty were eventually found guilty and sentenced.

The human rights organization drew on articles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to highlight that accused individuals have the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

DCI said the children confessed to the charges brought against them after extended periods of interrogation, which occurred before their court appearance.