The Search for Justice.
i have seen and loved that cartoon many times before, because it helps shift perspective. Some of us might have been clamouring loudly for Equality [or for the things that make us feel equal but still leave others behind a fence] when in actual fact what we are needing to champion is Justice. That simple cartoon illustrates this so powerfully.
[Side Note: The people who get to see over the fence are watching a game of baseball, maybe subtly suggesting that those who do have the privilege still lose out big time – now if it was cricket…]
Add to that this quote which i found in a draft piece for my blog and cannot remember who wrote the piece it comes from [sorry!]:
Equality is not oppression, unless seen from a position of privilege.
As a white person who is becoming aware of the different aspects of privilege i carry, i need to stop for a minute and really focus on that. When i stand in a white person’s house and hear them ask, “What? Am I expected to give up my house?” it can sound a little harsh and ridiculous to ask… but then i ask the same question while standing in a mate’s shack in Khayelitsha, that has maybe 13 people living in it and one outside toilet, then it seems a lot more clear to me… Yes, maybe it is not okay that two of you live in this three bedroomed house with three bathrooms. [The horrible part comes when i catch a glimpse of who i am talking to in the mirror and realise the reflection looks a lot like me].
But then i came across this upgraded version of the cartoon this week which says it even more explicitly:
First, just notice that you can’t even see the person on the top set of boxes… and then that the little guy on the right doesn’t just not have a box, but he has a hole in the ground where the box is meant to be.
Secondly, a comment by my friend Kari, when she saw this on my wall:
oh. that’s gonna hurt when #thatmustfall [Kari Cousins]
Which added a whole lot of perspective to the picture. And maybe gave some kind of understanding [but not justification] to why the people on the high up boxes are the most resistant to change – it’s a LONG WAY DOWN.
TAKING IT OFF THE SCREEN
You know that the problem is though: Cartoons are easy. Real life is hard.
tbV and i are busy looking for a place to stay now, because we have been given notice at our current place.
We are not looking to move into a shack into a township.
i think it might be a little more straightforward if we knew that us moving into a shack in a township meant that some other family currently staying in one got to live in a comfortable two bedroom place somewhere, but that’s not the reality. The reality is that if we move into a shack in a township, there will be one more family living in a shack in a township and no new people living in a comfortable two bedroom place somewhere.
We also both have a strong heart for hospitality and especially to be able to host conversations that bring people of different races and backgrounds together to dive deeply into and wrestle with meaty engagements around Justice and Reconciliation and Restitution. The reality is that if we move into a township, we will lose half of those people ever coming to our table.
Cartoons are easy. Real life? Not so much.
There are a variety of other reasons that impact where we will choose to live – our marriage and our families and proximity to people and places we are working with and building relationships with are all in there and all add their own flavour to the mix. And i’ve no doubt there are many people poised at their keyboards ready to tell me what we definitely should and shouldn’t do.
It is a wrestle, and rightly so. It is not something we take lightly. One thing we definitely are doing is choosing where and how we live based on the values we have of Hospitality, Bridge-Building, Diversity, Relationships, God and Family.
One thing we are holding strongly to as one of the top things on our list is that we will not move to an area where everyone looks like us.
MOVING THE BOXES
Back to the cartoons. How do we move the boxes? That is an ongoing question i think and it is important that we start by looking at our own boxes and figure out from there how justice can be achieved. After that comes the moment of being a bridge between those standing on all the boxes and those with no boxes to speak of. In the reality picture, i’m convinced that if the person on all the boxes had Relationship with the person who had none, it would be an easy and quick solution. How do we bring the people on different sides together? And how do we create spaces where it is safe [although probably awkward, difficult, loud, uncomfortable, painful] for the stories to be shared?
Those are the questions we will continue to grapple with and invite you to continue to do so with us. While i am excited at the moment by the tone of conversation that seems to be happening a lot more all over the place, we do need to get to the place – and quite quickly i think – where the boxes start to move.
Join us as we continue to seek Justice together. Start by asking how many boxes are you standing on?
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There will always be people who have more. Some look better such as models and they never wait in queues at nightclubs. They get money for just looking pretty. Are you suggesting they should walk around with a brown paper bag over their heads? Should they have plastic surgery to diminish their looks?
Are you maybe referring to possessions or living conditions? If so, we hear your excuses and I have the same ones. I live in camps Bay in a 5 bedroom house. I have a room to sleep in, a lounge, 2 rooms for an office and the rest for storage and other. Am I wealthy? By most standards I am. If you asked a guy in llandudno he might think I’m a little poor. It’s quite relative.
The poor in the townships are there in great numbers, but neither you nor I will trade places with them. We could move to the townships and provide a shelter or use our money to help 20 houses there. But we don’t! We all in theory think there should be equity, but in reality we don’t want to be poor or sacrifice. We both want to have parties and home entertainment. We both like the fast lifestyle and we make up any excuse. We really do. Instead of buying a car, we could get a scooter and use the rest of the money to help poor people. Instead of a 4 bedroom house, 3, or 2, or a bachelor flat, in Wynberg, in Belleville, in langa?
If we really wanted to we could take the money and instead of us all living in a township, we could have my family and a black svk family living as neighbors in a lower class mixed suburb. We could share the money. But I don’t think we want that. I like having a big screen, a BMW, a 4×4 for the outdoors and the fast lifestyle. We always find reason!
At most we all donate a little here and there, but we don’t give up big boxes. We won’t move out of our sphere of status or lifestyle. You, me, all of us.
Is it wrong? Why don’t we?
Hi Georg
Thanks for stopping by. It’s a good start to recognise where we are. But please don’t lump me in with the choices you have made because while i am still struggling with some of the choices we make and have made, there has definitely been and continues to be movement and there is an ongoing wrestling as we try to figure out what is good and healthy and practical and sustainable. So my wife and i have made some specific choices that would not allow us the big screen, the BMW, the 4×4 and the fast lifestyle. Do we still have a long way to go? Absolutely. But we are stepping towards while we continually struggle with what that looks like – if we give everything and go and live in a shack that probably works on some levels but then likely stops us from doing some things in terms of walking towards [and helping others walk towards] that are vision and values for us. Just as refusing to make any steps and simply focusing only on what looks like comfort and pleasure. So both extremes do not work for us and so we have to maybe take each box one at a time, examine it and then see how best we can walk towards. One example for us is choosing where to live – previously that choice moved us to Southfield where the majority of people do not look like us [priority] and now that we have to move again we are being intentional in terms of places we choose to live [Pinelands is an example of an area we won’t consider and Camps Bay didn’t even come close to making it on the table]. our reality is we want to make appropriate sacrifices because we don’t feel it’s fair the current situation AND because we feel we can do something about it – maybe not for everyone but for some people. So through relationship we have different aspects of giving to an individual, to a family, to an organisation, to help us to step towards – we work out time and our energy in the same way – hopefully in a way that allows us to keep time and energy available for future engagements and so trying to figure out some kind of balance that allows us to keep giving and walking towards in ways that are sustainable. i firmly believe that if you continue to live the lifestyle you have described and refuse to do any walking towards at all, that there will come a day of reckoning and that will not work out so well for you – what that looks like who knows but preferably arrive at it of your own volition and make connections and engage with people and build and grow through relationships rather than just sitting pretty with your wealth…
All the best
love brett fish
Thanks for the reply, but in all reality you are no different. You could live in poorer area and give more, but your excuse (we all have them) is that people won’t visit you and you can’t continue your engaging and discussions to spread awareness or whatever. I could say similar, the more I work, the more tax I pay which helps the poor. To work hard I need to play hard, relax at nightclubs or let off steam. What I pay in tax is much more than most earn. I am effectively feeding around 30 poor people just through my taxes. At the end of the day, I need to relax and let off steam. Then back to earning. That’s my excuse. But if it’s kinda true really as I could go to work a 9 to 5 and earn far less and go help the poor directly, but then it would be less money, less for me and for them.
It really is relative. I know a guy who drives a Ferrari and he said it makes him feel better about working long hours. He has about 2 hours free the whole week, so he wants it all compressed into as much fun and excess as possible. Others who receive grants get around 80 free hours to relax and enjoy life while this guy, you and I pay their grants through taxes.
When I fly, it’s only business class. People say it’s excessive, but I need to step off that plane running into the office and ready to as a mergers negotiator. It’s high pressure and I sleep better in business class. Economy class I could do, but I’d be tired and won’t be able to function. By travelling business class, I help the poor more in the long run than by being tired in economy and donating the difference between the tickets.
I’m not at all worried about some day where they might come attack us if that’s what you are implying? We all well armed and ready. Hope it doesn’t come to that. The poor are usually happy being poor, it’s usually when they see what others have that envy sets in.
So I think we both in the same boat here. We both have our excuses if we must call it that. Yes, I like my home cinema. I don’t need to catch flu or a cold in a public cinema and be off work. I work hard. I play hard. I have reached a point where my value is to work, to improve the country. I look after myself and the country grows. You won’t see me on the ground in a township. It’s akin to telling a top neurosurgeon that he should be cleaning toilets. There are toilet cleaners, and a tip neurosurgeon would be wasted doing that. If I work 5 hours for example, I earn R10k and pay tax of about R4k. That 4k goes to 8 people! No way I can accomplish that by working 5 hours directly for the poor. It’s the same reason you don’t.
You and I are the same. Sure you are engaging more with poor people but trust me, I do more business with black wealthy individuals and industrialists than you deal with black people on business. At that level there is no racism at all. If anything I wish I were black at times.
You tell yourself you won’t live in a township but it’s because you really would prefer a bigger house in a nicer area. It’s simple and I agree with you. Don’t deny yourself. You probably do more being successful than being poor. We the same, just on different levels.
Anyway gotta run. Great chatting. Next time you see that guy in the Ferrari, there are guys even wealthier, in yachts, planes and so on. It’s all relative…
No Georg, you are wrong. You live in a bubble that needs to burst. And you have no clue about me [i actually already have lived in a township for 18 months – it’s not a desire for a bigger house in a nicer area at all – it’s about opportunities to bring people from both sides together so that those who are wealthy can start stepping towards those who are not].
And i don’t think being attacked or having to defend yourself needs to be your biggest concern. You are in much bigger danger of losing your soul, your humanity. Until you get to a place of “It is not okay that someone lives like this so that you can live like that” and you don’t even care of have compassion or pity, you are in very real danger of losing your very self, and no amount of money, business trips or things are going to bring that back…
Take a good long hard look in the mirror. There is much work to be done.
It’s not okay they live like that, but leave the “so” put of it. It’s not causal. It’s not because I’m wealthy they not. I made most of my cash dealing with overseas businesses.
I think you should reread my post. Don’t judge me either. You were not originally talking about my soul, but about civil war type ramblings.