pain and Hope

Book Review: I’m still here by Austin Channing Brown

i have just started reading - and almost finished - Austin Channing Brown's 'I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a world made for whiteness'.  i highly recommend it. While 'White Fragility: Why it's so hard for white people to talk about racism' by Robin DiAngelo was super helpful hearing ideas, challenges and analogies from a white woman, so 'I'm Still Here' has been profoundly challenging and helpful, hearing the story from the perspective of [...]

By |2019-03-06T12:24:33+02:00March 6th, 2019|pain and Hope, positive ideas for change, race vibes, thorts of other people, what i am reading|0 Comments
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i’m not trying to change your mind

My dream is that i will one day live in a nation where people will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. Sound familiar? i am busy reading 'The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.' and so that has been influencing me quite a bit. But that really is my heart. And to that end i don't want white people to feel guilty or unincluded or [...]

By |2019-02-04T12:41:17+02:00February 4th, 2019|inspire-ations, pain and Hope, positive ideas for change, race vibes, South Africa|6 Comments
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The power of a network to flip a country on its head

This past week has been tough. Sitting with a R40 000 bill over our heads [alongside the more manageable R12000 to fix our car] for driving into a BMW is not to be found on the list of 'Ten Ways to De-Stress your life'. But, we are surrounded by people who know and love us and there is no way conceivable to us that tbV [the beautiful Val] and i are going to find ourselves [...]

By |2019-01-30T11:31:22+02:00January 30th, 2019|inspire-ations, pain and Hope, positive ideas for change, South Africa, Uncategorized|2 Comments
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The Whiteness conversation has begun [and it was good!]

What are you doing Friday night? Going to a workshop that interrogates whiteness. Wait, what? And I am paying for it. Those words might seem like they come out of an SNL sketch if South Africa had an SNL type show.  But we don't. And it was the brave decision of eight white people to respond to an invitation that my friend and colleague Megan Furniss put out on Facebook: I am Megan Furniss, a [...]

By |2018-12-15T10:53:12+02:00December 15th, 2018|inspire-ations, pain and Hope, positive ideas for change, race vibes, South Africa|1 Comment
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Justicing all the way to the Conference

If you live in a bit of a vacuum you may not have heard of the Justice Conference in South Africa that is happening next week Friday and Saturday. If that is the case - and even if it's not and you've seen this before - give this a watch: https://www.facebook.com/thejusticeconferenceSA/videos/2018186161548780/?t=0 The Ripple Effect i have been involved in a lot of camps and conferences in my life that have [...]

By |2018-10-05T10:54:04+02:00October 5th, 2018|activities, pain and Hope, positive ideas for change|4 Comments
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A new Brand of Recovery

Walking through the airport on the way to Durban, i spotted Russel Brand's new book 'Recovery - Freedom from our Addictions' in Exclusive Books. And promptly bought it to read on the plane and beyond. i am a HUGE Russel Brand fan. i think he is highly underrated and that a lot of his wisdom is often missed or dismissed due to his incredible in-your-face persona which many find jarring. But from his comedy to [...]

By |2018-08-08T08:44:56+02:00August 8th, 2018|change the world, pain and Hope, positive ideas for change, thorts of other people, what i am reading|2 Comments
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i don’t hate my skin

For some reason this stuff seems to be on my mind. The other day i wrote a poem called 'Whiteness' which you can read over here. And i have a piece that i wrote when i was helping out with an exam the other day while waiting for my learner to write her paper. Which i haven't looked at again, but similar theme. And then i was working on this piece. i would love to [...]

By |2018-06-26T15:35:41+02:00June 26th, 2018|pain and Hope, poems and other creativity, South Africa|6 Comments
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A glimpse of dignity: a parable of Napoleon Webster

"Where did you two meet?" "That's easy. He [me] is an activist and I [Napoleon] am an activist. We were introduced by another activist [Nigel Branken]." That was part of an exchange that happened yesterday as i got to hang out with my friend Napoleon Webster who i hadn't seen since he was released from spending over 200 days in prison for a crime he did not commit. But let's backpedal a bit... The Marikana [...]

By |2018-06-19T16:22:59+02:00June 19th, 2018|heroes or heroic moments, inspire-ations, pain and Hope, South Africa|0 Comments
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From the Bottom Up

When i say "Cape Flats", you say "Violence!" "Cape Flats!" "VIOLENCE!!" "Cape Flats!" "VIOLENCE!!" Because, along with Nazareth and townships and maybe even Africa as a whole, that is the kind of mindset that too many of us hold, right? The mindset that says [or suggests, or at the very least thinks]: What good ever came out of the Cape Flats...? Time to flip this narrative This past weekend i had the privilege - and [...]

By |2018-05-14T16:06:18+02:00May 14th, 2018|heroes or heroic moments, inspire-ations, local news, pain and Hope, positive ideas for change, South Africa|1 Comment
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“Your very presence is violent!”

Words i heard last night. Not the kind of thing that feels great coming from someone who has a history of giving you a hard time or trolling you on social media, but something you learn to get over quickly and pull out the thick skin for. "Your very presence is violent." But what if it comes from one of your best friends? And what if you suspect they might be right?  [Disclaimer: Now i imagine [...]

By |2018-04-12T13:46:29+02:00April 12th, 2018|pain and Hope, race vibes, South Africa, things to wrestle with|2 Comments
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