DAY 40ish Wow! Day 40. We made it... ish. Easter is still a few days away so may still add a post or two but it has been fun [and only slightly overwhelming] to do this journey with those few of you who have joined with me. The Bible mentions seven things that Jesus says while hanging on the cross. I found this online site that looks at each statement [calling each one a 'word'] and [...]
When this topic first came up, I chose not to get involved because I knew the controversy it would cause. People on all sides are generally exceptionally sensitive when it come to the topic of race. We can never just talk about our differences without an argument ensuing. Someone always has to overact out of offense and someone else will always have to pay by taking the blame. The conversation is almost not worth having [...]
i came across this article, '21 Racial Microaggressions You Hear On A Daily Basis', posted by Heben Nigatu on Buzzfeed, made me unbelievably sad, and in the context of the conversations we are having at Irresistibly Fish, felt like something worth adding in here so that some more people will hopefully have that 'Oh' moment of getting this a little bit more. 'The term “microaggression” was used by Columbia professor Derald Sue to refer to [...]
so yesterday i got to go to Six Flags, which is a rollercoaster [and animal it turns out] park in California and had the raddest rollercoastering day! and i also got to 'meet' Odin the Bengal tiger who was a most beautiful and majestic animal [sorry lion!]: That picture doesn't really do him justice - Odin was a beast! Beautiful, sleek, with big flabby paws that thumped around on the ground as he majestically wandered [...]
Every important thing has been said particularly by Tsholofelo Mpuru! You nailed it girl. I don’t even know why I am writing but Brett asked and I said yes. This is my pet hate. A lot of white people may not be guilty of this. I hope. I mentioned to a Zimbabwean friend of mine this month just how much I absolutely detest being asked whether I am Zimbabwean by a white South African or [...]
this is not going to be a blog post as much as it is going to be an invitation to a comments forum where you can jump in and share your thoughts on any aspect of race - good, bad and ugly... when you think of race, what comes to mind - can be happy, sad, confusing, angry, celebratory... but keep it civil - am good with questions and statements and stories but not overt [...]
DAY 39ish i saw this prayer/poem/reflection? on my friend Conso's Facebook wall and thought it was too good not to share... Task: Mediate and reflect on the following words as they have meaning for you: Until i encountered the CROSS... i knew confession but did not know repentance, i knew ritual but did not know true worship, i knew guilt and shame but did not know redemption, i knew judgement and condemnation but did [...]
Where on earth do I even start with this topic? “What I want my white friends to know” seems like such a direct attack to some of my closest friends and those who I am still to meet. I absolutely love my friends so how could I write this? Then I thought about how much I really want to say some things and I sat down to type this. First of all I come [...]
"I did not benefit from apartheid, therefore why should I be held liable" # this is just one heck of a common statement that I hear from a lot of my white friends and I find it unwarranted because it lacks intellectual credibility, empathy, responsiveness and a sense of self awareness - "white privilege" is the damn elephant in the room -# as a black man I'm always an immediate suspect, thanks to this stereotype caricature that [...]
so i got a little silly today and i can't even remember why - someone's #firstworldproblems hashtag triggered a Will Smith response version... which then became a 'being spun in a huge circle by someone really strong' version and of course a 'surfing in the ocean when the first wave arrives' one... 8 attempts later and i had a bit of a list... what world problems did you experience today? After Earth, Wild Wild West, [...]