Black Americans Living Abroad Volume 1 Issue 2 | Page 16

#WeGlobal African Americans Living Abroad Research & Education Program Update — Winter 2019 Did You Know? Black Americans Living Abroad That there are thousands of African American men and women athletes playing professionally abroad? For instance, the website https:// www.usbasket.com/ maintains a database of American men and women playing basketball overseas; the clear majority of whom are African Americans. This website covers 435 leagues all over the world. It is difficult to track affiliations because many athletes play for different leagues in different countries within the same year. On the other hand, some players stay with one league for many years or even decades. David Goldstein’s book, Alley-Oop to Aliyah: African American Hoopsters in the Holy Land, highlights several people who played 13-18 years in Israel. In fact, more than 800 African-American players have competed in the Israeli Premier League since it was formed in 1954. The challenge for #WeGlobal will be finding these athletes around the world. For the past year, we have been very honored to have Katrina Sunnei Samasa as a member of our Advisory Committee and as a #WeGlobal Ambassador. In 2001, Katrina created the Facebook group Black Americans Living Abroad (BALA) because she realized that no organization specifically focused on the Black American expat. Being newly expatriated as a single moth- er in the UAE, she needed a re- source, a family, and a group of indi- viduals who shared her experienc- es. That FB group now has over 10,000 members. After a 7-year stint in the UAE, she recently relo- cated to Jeju Island, South Ko- rea. With the first BALA magazine complete and the second in de- velopment, her goal is to offer balanced information specifically ca- tered to the Black American expat and those interested in living overseas, to ensure they make informed decisions before they move abroad. She is also organizing a Black Girls Magic event in Jeju April 5-7 th for Black American expat women living in Asia. University of Michigan #WeGlobal and The University of Michigan are working collaboratively to launch the African Amer- icans Living Abroad global study. We are currently submitting the human subjects review to Michi- gan’s IRB. We expect that the online survey will “go live” later in February. Support Us #WeGlobal: African Americans Living Abroad Re- search and Education Program is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable pur- poses of #WeGlobal must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Donate at https:// www.fracturedatlas.org/site/FiscalSponsorship/ profile?id=18081. Thank you for your support! #WeGlobal @ The Wright The Charles H. Wright Museum of African Ameri- can History in Detroit, Michigan will host a #WeGlobal public pro- gram on February 23, 2019 at 2:00pm. Dr. Deb- orah Robinson and Dr. Rashida Braggs will dis- cuss African Americans living abroad historically and currently, as well as how to get involved in the #WeGlobal study. This is the first of sev- eral library and museum programs that will take place during 2019. Let’s Make History Together! www.aalivingabroad.org