http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/01/politics/brazilian-president-discusses-overcoming-slavery/index.html

On Tuesday September 22nd the president of Brazil who was invited to the White House for a press conference brought up a discussion about slavery.  She discussed how much America and Brazil have in common with overcoming slavery. She discussed how both America and Brazil had to go through much hardship to abolish slavery.

Slavery has been abolished right?  Why are these two world leaders discussing slavery in 2015?  This subject was brought up over the fact that racism remains a reality in both countries.  People in the United States are sensitive over recent banning of the confederate flag. A lot of people see that flag as a symbol of slavery. During the Atlantic slave trade, Brazil was the country who would gain the most slaves. Brazil abolished slavery in 1888, nearly 25 years after the US did. It took the United States almost 100 years to bring equal citizenship to freed slaves. Most of Brazil is made up of African Americans.

Its important for every country to discuss issues like this and to talk about how we overcame these issues. Without discussing topics like this and teaching everyone about these issues, there is a great chance we could make similar mistakes in the future.  It is good for world leaders to seek common ground in the shared history of their countries so that they can also work on common ground in improving their future societies.