What do i mean by a 'Racism Spectrum'? This morning i chatted to four grade 6s about Racism. Don't get me wrong, that's not a regular hobby of mine - "Hey kids, gather round and listen to how awful your ancestors were..." - in fact, this was an amazing opportunity gifted to me by a friend of mine who teaches at their school. Grade sixes were doing a project and four of them chose [...]
If the only black and brown people you interact with in your life are those who are in positions of service to you, you have work to do. [Not to say that if you have black and brown people in leadership over you or as equals in the spaces you inhabit that you are not racist - just like being married to a black or brown person or having children who are not the [...]
Are we responsible for the sins and legacy of the past? This seems to be a stumbling point for younger people today, who didn't live through apartheid and so "Why should we be held responsible for it?" i saw this illustration on Facebook today and think it helps address legacy so very well: How do we make sense of the past as it relates to our present A lot of the race conversations [...]
The internet can be a confusing and scary place to try and figure out race vibes [or parenting/immigration/religion/sexuality and so on...] - if you're brave then check out 'Ozzy Man reviews Arguing on the Internet' because it is harsh but funny and sadly not too far from the truth. Trying to figure out race vibes offline can also be counterproductive if the people around you are more echo chamber than collaborative sounding board, which [...]
i am convinced that relationships are the key to South Africa's transformation. We can read and learn and unlearn and try to understand and engage and educate ourselves - which are all helpful and important things to do - but unless we are building real, authentic, two-way friendship with people we are not going to be moving forwards. Sometimes the reading, learning, unlearning, understanding, engaging and educating are vital for us so that we won't [...]
We need more Diversity! If you are a white person living in the Western Cape then it can become fairly easy to believe that white people make up the majority of people in the province and be extension, the country. The reality, though, is that we make up closer to 16% of the province and less then 8% of the country. So there has to be a certain degree of intentionality [or maybe lack [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
i have wanted to read some Martin Luther King, Jr. for the longest time. So when tbV gave me 'The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. edited by Clayborn Carson' as part of our Christmas book exchange i was super stoked. My serious journey towards becoming conscientised [an ongoing work, by the way] began largely in America when i lived there for three years and i saw [and still see] so much overlap between the [...]
Birthdays are cool, once you get past that number ticking up vibe. For me birthdays are always about the people - how can i get to spend as much time with as many people who i really love as is humanly possible. Which is why i used to always drag mine out to a week - have as many different occasions for different friends from different spaces to congregate. But they are also about [...]
