pain and Hope : Brett Fish

Taboo Topics: Parents of young children – Meet Terran and Julie [and their 5!]

My friends Terran and Julie Williams were going about life with their three delightful children, sharing regular stories of funny statements and learnt lessons and chaotic moments, when suddenly the news of a 4th child on the way... and then further news that their 4th was a set of twins... If you think three young children is hard, try to get your head around five! Terran shared this piece on Facebook yesterday and gave me [...]

By brettfish|2015-07-27T15:31:11+02:00July 27th, 2015|family, pain and Hope, Taboo Topics, things to wrestle with, thorts of other people|12 Comments

The Power of a Gr-Attitude

i somehow got into two Facebook argumersations yesterday at the same time. TWO! i can't remember that happening before. i usually try pick my battles one at a time, but somehow, two different articles i shared, generated two different fairly strong push backs. Which i love. i love it when people push back and are genuinely committed to the conversation and engaging and not simply being trolls or palookas. But sometimes [especially when it's people [...]

By brettfish|2015-07-25T14:01:21+02:00July 25th, 2015|local news, pain and Hope, things to wrestle with|1 Comment

The drum beats on…

i have read some REALLY helpful articles about privilege this week. My fear is that the appearance of the word 'privilege' with the assumption of it being specifically 'white privilege' on my blog immediately drives the very people i am wanting to hear and engage with this stuff away. But my hope, which is so much stronger than my fear, is that there are people like Bob [who a bunch of us had this long [...]

By brettfish|2015-07-24T13:34:38+02:00July 24th, 2015|challenging thorts, inspire-ations, local news, pain and Hope, things to wrestle with, thorts of other people|0 Comments

I Write What I Like – Steve Biko: the perceived inferiority of the black man

This is a hard but necessary passage to share from Steve Biko's 'I Write What I Like' which you should totally get hold of and read in its entirety. Hard, because it is true. Not true that the black man is inferior, but that the idea of the black man being inferior has been so deeply entrenched in so many of us, that it is an extremely hard and horrible thing to admit to when [...]

By brettfish|2019-01-28T12:25:31+02:00July 23rd, 2015|challenging thorts, pain and Hope, things to wrestle with, what i am reading|4 Comments

Getting Real with some White South Africans

This rollercoaster looks familiar. i had just posted a link to an article titled Get Real White South Africa, written by Milisuthando Bongela on the Times Lives site. It contained this challenging and eye-opening statement: Only white people can end white supremacy from within their communities - from their churches, schools, dinner tables, clamber clubs, sports clubs, boardrooms, banting restaurants, neighbourhood-watch WhatsApp groups, advertising agency brainstorms, rebranded Broederbond organisations, newsrooms, coffee roasteries, and homes. Which [...]

By brettfish|2015-07-23T09:10:06+02:00July 23rd, 2015|challenging thorts, change the world, pain and Hope, things to wrestle with, thorts of other people|4 Comments

Micropoem: Triple threat

i woke up this morning to the Twitterer hashtag #IfIDieInCustody sparked by yet another police vs person of colour incident in Americaland. i have already blogged about it here, but the semi-poet in me kept screaming words and phrases and so eventually i sat down and came up with three different flavoured micropoems, for three different groups of people: = = = = = = = white america to those of you who have made [...]

By brettfish|2015-07-17T11:48:36+02:00July 17th, 2015|inspire-ations, pain and Hope, poems and other creativity, things to wrestle with, tricky things|1 Comment

If i die in police custody…

If i was a pastor in Americaland this coming Sunday, my sermon would definitely contain the words 'If i die in police custody' which is a trending hashtag on The Twitterer right now. TAKE A MOMENT WITH THAT. #IfIDieInPoliceCustody Last Friday, a black woman was returning home from a job interview in Waller County, Texas, when she was stopped by police after failing to properly signal a lane change. Two days later, she was dead [...]

By brettfish|2015-07-17T08:54:16+02:00July 17th, 2015|challenging thorts, pain and Hope, things to wrestle with, thorts of other people, world news|1 Comment

How to be One bit Less Racist: part Calling someone ‘boy’ or ‘girl’

One of the areas of racist behaviour that grates me the most is when a white person refers to the person working in their garden or looking after the upkeep of their house or perhaps watching their children as 'boy' or 'girl'. Especially when the person they are referring to is often older then them, but i think it should be a standard rule that once someone hits what 20? 18? they are no longer [...]

By brettfish|2015-07-08T12:45:21+02:00July 8th, 2015|change the world, pain and Hope, things to wrestle with|10 Comments

How to be One bit Less Racist: Intro

Race is one of the big issues we are dealing with in South Africa [and in Americaland, and most probably in pretty much every other country in the world, right?] and there is still a lot of work to be done. The idea of this series came from my understanding that most of us have some kind of racism or prejudice towards other people, particularly those of other cultures or race - some are quite overt [...]

By brettfish|2015-07-05T23:09:54+02:00July 5th, 2015|challenging thorts, change the world, pain and Hope, things to wrestle with|8 Comments

You can’t “Give them a Voice”!

The other day i was on the bus coming back from camp chatting to someone and they spoke a line that sends electricity through my body [and not in a good way]. i think we were talking about my blog and the other person said something about, 'Giving them a voice.' i can never ever give anyone else a voice. i can recognise and acknowledge and make space for and step out of the way [...]

By brettfish|2015-07-01T18:30:39+02:00July 1st, 2015|challenging thorts, change the world, inspire-ations, pain and Hope, things to wrestle with, thorts of other people|14 Comments