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What faith-based coping mechanisms have Christianity and Islam put forth in response to 400 years of African American suffering?

What faith-based coping mechanisms have Christianity and Islam put forth in response to 400 years of African American suffering?

That question and more will be explored Aug. 6-7 in a 2010 Black Theodicy Forum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. UNC’s Institute of African American Research will present the scholar-community dialogue, which is free to the public. Advance registration is required; seating capacity is 200. For more information and to register, visit www.unc.edu/iaar/blacktheodicyforum; e-mail iaar@unc.edu or call (919) 843-1897.

“In the forum, panels of scholars and community members will explore how enslavement, Jim Crow racism, segregation and institutionalized discrimination have impacted current inequalities and disparities faced by African Americans,” said Fatimah L.C. Jackson, Ph.D., institute director and anthropology professor.

The scholars will then look at aspects of Christianity and Islam designed to understand and ameliorate that suffering. Those two religions were chosen for study because faith has long been a cornerstone in African American history, and because most African Americans of faith belong to these two large organized religions.

“The forum represents an opportunity to gauge the positive responses offered by Christianity and Islam as possible ways to address the persistence of social affliction in African American communities,” Jackson said. “We hope that the forum will provide a chance for African Americans to find effective and sustainable ways of coping with years of devaluation and disenfranchisement.”

Institute of African American Research contact: Montez Thomas, (919) 962-6810
News Services contact: LJ Toler, (919) 962-8589

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