I'm in Brussels and had to get off to a running start. My plane was about an hour and a half late getting into Brussels so I only had about an hour to hang out at my hotel before heading to my meeting at the European Parliament. The meeting was being sponsored by the Socialists in the European Parliament and the Helsinki Commission which is chaired by Congressman Alcee Hastings. He is very interested in the situation for people of African descent in Europe and helping to get them mobilized politically. The title of the conference was "The Transatlantic Minority Political Leadership Conference." It was very interesting for me, since two of the topics, antidiscrimination policy and immigration, are what I'm here to study. I also met one of my hero's a former Member of the European Parliament who was one of the driving forces behind antidiscrimination policy in Europe in the 1980s and 1990s. He actually offered to give me some of the materials he has saved from that time period to use for my book project! This is a very exciting development.

It's a beautiful evening in Brussels and I'm glad I got a chance to walk around and take some pictures. Heading to Rotterdam for more meetings tomorrow.