A black man and a white man Step into a room together And ever so carefully Peel off their skin Folding it neatly Over the back of a chair Before taking a seat Directly across the table from one other Staring deeply into the other's soul A blood sample is taken from both men Two vials of the deepest red Placed on the table in front of them Followed shortly by a set of [...]
i wrote a poem this morning considering how the same words coming out of different mouths can mean a variety of things. Different worlds, even. [For another poem i wrote a while back on 'Whiteness' click here]
The Move One Million Facebook group has organised a nationwide march today, on the 5th of September 2020. Why is the 2020 significant, you may ask? Well, South Africa and the world happens to be in the throes of a global pandemic that to date has killed more than eight hundred thousand people [including fourteen thousand in South Africa]. That alone should be cause for concern. But tuning in to watch a maskless Move [...]
i was introduced to Merlize by my good friend Terence Mentor aka Afrodaddy, who, if you are not following, you should sort that out here. i started following her on Instagram after Afrodaddy and i had done an evening podcast about inclusion. anti-racism and blogging and quickly got to see that Merlize is someone that speaks out about injustice. Which, as you know, makes me really happy. So i asked her if she would [...]
Sometimes Jesus threw things and sometimes He didn't. As someone who tries to live a life that follows Jesus, i need to spend some time figuring this out so i can get it right. The fortunate thing is that it actually seems quite straightforward. When it had to do with systems and structures and people oppressing the poor and marginalised, Jesus threw tables. In moments of vulnerability and shame and the judgement of the [...]
Lockdown has been brutal for some marriages. i think it has been surprisingly good for ours on the other hand. Val and i are two people with very strong personalities and so to lock us in the same space for what is closing in on a year seems like a recipe for disaster. But for the most part things have been really good. Don't get me wrong - we irritate each other - we [...]
"But what can I do?" asked the white person. Who had just about gotten to the point of realisation that things were not white right in the world with regards to race and that something needed to be done. Which is where a lot of white people tend to stall out. "Yes, i get that there's a problem, but tell me what can I do?" as if with any other problem they faced they [...]
To move forward in South Africa, and, let's be honest, the world, we have to learn to own it. Making a mistake is not the end of the world. Getting it wrong sucks but it doesn't have to be the end. Messing up horribly or completely putting your foot in it in the very worst of ways can also be recovered from. BUT you absolutely have to own it! This means humility, honesty, vulnerability, [...]
It feels important to talk about the last time i got it wrong. And to be honest, this is very likely not even the last time, but it is a recent time that i am most aware of. Panel of Whiteness A couple of weeks ago, 2 August to be exact, so almost 3 weeks, i was invited to speak on a panel for the Global Business Round Table on a topic related to [...]
There are some times in life when a clever-sounding statement can be deeply interrogated simply by asking the question, "But for who?" Statement: Make America Great Again! Assumption: America was great before. Question: But for who? Was it great for black people during slavery? Was it great for African-Americans during the Jim Crow laws and lynchings? Was it great for refugees under the present and recent governments when they were locked up in cages [...]
