challenging thorts : Brett Fish

10 Practical Ways you can get involved with bridge-building

So much good stuff happening all over the internet the last two weeks in terms of helping us understand some of the challenges we are facing. i stumbled upon this in the Warehouse’s most recent newsletter and wanted to share it with you as some really practical steps for moving forwards together. These steps apparently emerged from a conversation between Linda Martindale, Caroline Powell and my wife, tbV [the beautiful Val]. We have heard a [...]

By brettfish|2015-10-30T11:35:04+02:00October 30th, 2015|challenging thorts, change the world, friends and enemas, inspire-ations, local news, things to wrestle with, thorts of other people|6 Comments

The Bully in the Mirror

A wise teacher once told the story of a man who was on a journey, who was mugged and beaten up, robbed of all his possessions and left on the side of the street to die. […]

By brettfish|2015-10-29T07:09:09+02:00October 29th, 2015|challenging thorts, change the world, local news, things to wrestle with|8 Comments

How to be an Ally: Just say “No!”

This week i was hanging out with my friend Susan and she told me a story that happened recently about standing up to racism. […]

By brettfish|2015-10-27T06:10:32+02:00October 27th, 2015|challenging thorts, change the world, South Africa|9 Comments

#FeesMustFall live from the ground

i did my best to compile some helpful resources linked to the #FeesMustFall movement in this post i did ‘From a Number of Different Eyes and Mouths’ and this second post which shared more thoughts as well as first-hand experiences of others. But i knew that to really get a feel for what was happening and to be a more active part of it, we needed to get on the ground and so we did that today [...]

By brettfish|2015-10-23T02:13:17+02:00October 23rd, 2015|challenging thorts, change the world, inspire-ations, local news, pain and Hope, things to wrestle with|9 Comments

How to be an Ally: Move to the Back

Continuing the search on how to be a more effective ally when it comes to my black, coloured and indian friends in South Africa. While it was not specifically an Ally Series post, this piece i did yesterday titled, ‘Before I Comment’ is one we would all do well to pay attention to. Thinking before we rush in to an argument with an opinion or to try and take control is a definite way we [...]

By brettfish|2015-10-14T08:08:56+02:00October 14th, 2015|challenging thorts, change the world, inspire-ations, pain and Hope, South Africa, things to wrestle with|2 Comments

Before i comment…

Yesterday i wrote a post titled, 'Before you favourite, RT, forward...' which started with Back to the Future memes [not serious at all] and ended with alleged swimming lesson racism [very serious]. The focus being on people on various social media platforms sharing stories that arrive as 'Breaking News' or are sensational or emotionally-charged, before they have bothered to check whether they are authentic or not. i want to take it a little bit further today, [...]

By brettfish|2015-10-13T08:49:40+02:00October 13th, 2015|challenging thorts, friends and enemas, pain and Hope, South Africa, things to wrestle with|4 Comments

Before you favourite, RT, forward…

On the 11th of July 2012 this popular meme illustrating the day Marty McFly [from the classic movie, 'Back to the Future'] arrived in the future started flying its way around the internet. You know, cos look out for Marty McFly or something. The only problem being, that it was not true. Back to the Future was released in 1985 and in the movie Marty Mcfly travels 30 years into the future [making it 2015, [...]

By brettfish|2015-10-12T09:12:27+02:00October 12th, 2015|challenging thorts, pain and Hope, shtupidt people, things to wrestle with|7 Comments

How to be an Ally: On being a non-black Ally in Africa. [Guest Post: Alexa Matthews]

Continuing with the conversation about ‘How to be an Ally’ with my friend Alexa Matthews who has a huge heart for this kind of thing and the humility to understand that we are trying to figure it out as we go along: I have sat with this for a little while – and was hoping to send it off before leaving South Africa for a holiday. I am still wrestling with whether I as a [...]

By brettfish|2015-10-08T10:49:01+02:00October 8th, 2015|challenging thorts, South Africa, things to wrestle with, thorts of other people|24 Comments

Breaking Bread [with Trev]: Listening to the Listeners

i have been enjoying these conversations with Trevor Black from Swart Donkey. Back and forth five times on a topic with about 100 words a time. This is our third collaborative blog conversation, this time with a focus on Listening to the Listeners. i hope you will enjoy it. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Trev: I loved the Free Speech board at my university residence. [...]

By brettfish|2015-10-06T15:30:05+02:00October 6th, 2015|challenging thorts, friends and enemas, inspire-ations, thorts of other people|2 Comments

Taboo Topic: The People who Work for Us – Intro

This is a complex one. We don’t presently have a maid/domestic worker but have spoken about the possibility of employing someone in that role. And this is not a witch hunt to try and make anyone feel bad [unless you need to be feeling bad and then don’t feel bad but just change how you’re living!]. A number of months ago i was chatting to a domestic worker at a friend’s house and just hearing [...]