The Colourblind argument seems to be a confusing one for many people. White people, trying to do the right thing, often hold on to the statement: I don't see colour. While completely believing it. i would like to approach that from a different direction than i have before, which might make it easier for some of you to get. Many of my best friends are black, coloured and indian people. And no, that's not [...]
This has been a week of two stories when it comes to the homeless people of Cape Town or those who tend to live on the streets. Earlier this week i was encouraged and inspired to see testimony from the St Peters microsite that has been created to take care of around ten homeless men during lockdown. Which you can and should read about over here. A number of my friends are involved there [...]
Does the term 'anti-racist' sit well with you? i admit that any term that defines someone as something they're not or something they're against feels unwieldy to me. This is why i come out so strongly against the term 'non-white'. It puts white people in the middle as the norm or accepted or perfect thing and then distances anyone who is called non-white away from that. As if whiteness is normal or right or [...]
How much money is too much money? While the question is always going to be somewhat relative, i feel like sometimes it's quite an easy one to answer. When i saw this list of bank boss salaries yesterday it made me super sad and angry. While not all that surprised. This representation along [that i discovered comes from this article on the BusinessTech website] could be this whole blog post. It says more than [...]
That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, and aeroplanes. And Lenny Bruce is not afraid... Turns out that R.E.M. were not as prophetic as we all might have hoped, for as @bj_flemming pointed out on the Twitterer this morning: REM were wrong it starts with a bush fire, pandemic, murder hornets; not an earthquake, birds, snakes, and aeroplanes. — Blake live from down unde🔴 (@bj_flemming) May 9, 2020 Chances are though, [...]
How fast are you? And how furious? A friend shared these words with me last night about a restaurant called Lelapa in Langa: The restaurant was started by a domestic worker who decided to take an opportunity to start a restaurant as tour operators were starting to do township tours. And what drove her to make the leap was finding a restaurant bill in her employer's washing for a night out that was [...]
How difficult is this idea that all of us really need to Stay At Home?= = = = = = = = = =A lady with a shopping bag is seen by a neighbour who asks her how her shop went. "Oh no, this is just a decoy so I can walk my dog."= = = = = = = = = =On the Twitterer a crossroads in a suburb is shown and then camera [...]
The idea of 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children seems crazy to me. When what we obviously need is 365.25 days of Activism for No Violence against women and children. But i get it. Because of the state and nature of the extremes of violence that are happening towards women and children, just drawing some attention and mobilising as many people as possible for more of a bite-sized chunk [...]
Why do we have such a problem with being called racist? i wonder if it is because some of us have a slightly messed up understanding of what it means when we talk about racism. Let me give you an example. When many of us think of racism, we tend to think of this definition that Robin di Angelo [author of the book, White Fragility] uses as an example: 'An individual who consciously does [...]
Yesterday i wrote some thoughts about the Bishops sex scandal where a female teacher allegedly had sex with an 18 year old learner from Bishops. There were possibly more incidents involving other learners, possibly over a number of years and 'jokes' and apparently a rather disturbing video of the teacher have been doing the rounds at alarming rates. Bishops sex scandal clarifications This morning i added some thoughts: [1] We need to keep talking [...]
