I woke up on election day, my thumbs ready to be inked and itching to say something to challenge people to get up and vote seeing as a friend of mine had just expressed disinterest in politics and thus voting itself. As I lay in bed contemplating if it would be better to sleep the morning away and vote later, my brother sent me a message; a speech allegedly delivered by PW Botha in 1985. [...]
i just watched this TED talk by a woman called Mellody Hobson on the introduction of a topic she called 'Colour Braveness' While the focus of the clip is very much from a 'The American Dream' point of view, and so doesn't necessarily have the end point i would focus on [become a CEO of a company!] there are some interesting and helpful points she raises and so it is well worth a viewing... Some [...]
American-African meets African-American. We met at university; both of us were on student leadership for our respective halls. Sherrell’s from Durham, NC. James is from Cape Town, South Africa (Well, mostly). Naturally, there are a lot of cultural differences we’ve discovered along the way. For starters, we have different likes and dislikes, some of them diametrically opposite each other, ranging from the superficial, like our tastes in music and to how we like to [...]
Hi brett. I saw you put up a request for inter- racial relationship stories: here's a bit of mine: in 150 days i'm marrying my best friend and the love of my life. He is coloured and i'm white and we are the best for each other. When I look at him I don't see my culture or his - I see two people working out life with a different approach and mentality... this goes [...]
"Not taking offense is 10 times harder than not giving it. Try going a day without taking offense when criticized." That is how Peter Enns ends off this simple but profound blog piece titled '6 thoughts–let’s call them tips–on publicly criticizing and being criticized' and while you should totally go and read the whole piece to see his explanations of each point, i thought i would simply share the six points he makes: 1. To write is [...]
As a nation we are celebrating 20 years of democracy and while there is still a lot that has to be done in this country of ours that bears the horrible scars of Apartheid, I am still proud that we are here. It means something because at least we are not where we used to be. There are still many conversations that still need to be had, of course and the sooner we get talking, [...]
Let's crank this thing up a notch. Two articles that have caught my attention recently [Thankx Tsholofelo for the first one] and have a lot to say in this Race conversation that we've started and are engaging with each other on [although am still hoping to see more of that]. These feel like they could be part of the 'can of worms' and 'Pandora's Box' i was promised [threatened with?] when i said that i [...]
Changing tack a little bit on this whole race conversation as we bring a little humour into it. Comedian Hari Kondabolu appears on the David Letterman show and shares some race-related humour which becomes deeply insightful when you take a moment to realise some of the truths that the comedy is bases on and especially as he dives into the highly insulting idea of group of people from different races or cultures being classified simply as [...]
Changing tack a little bit on this whole race conversation as we bring a little humour into it. Comedian Hari Kondabolu appears on the David Letterman show and shares some race-related humour which becomes deeply insightful when you take a moment to realise some of the truths that the comedy is bases on and especially as he dives into the highly insulting idea of group of people from different races or cultures being classified simply as [...]
When this topic first came up, I chose not to get involved because I knew the controversy it would cause. People on all sides are generally exceptionally sensitive when it come to the topic of race. We can never just talk about our differences without an argument ensuing. Someone always has to overact out of offense and someone else will always have to pay by taking the blame. The conversation is almost not worth having [...]