When the Laerskool Schweizer-Reneke incident of segregated children in the classroom broke, people quickly seemed to rush to pick sides, with a lot of white people doing soem rather impressive gymnastics to try and defend the white teacher. This is such a helpful comment from my friend Nobuntu Webster which expresses better than i did what i was trying to say earlier: = = = = = = = = = "What you all may not realise [...]
Sho. Racists? i just don't understand you. Except that it HAS to be othering. That's all i can think of. The cure for racism then has to be connection... That was a thought that came to mind as Val and myself sat on the pavement just off De Waal drive last night, about 100m from our house, watching the incredible festivities that were a part of an African wedding reception taking place across the street.How [...]
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 [...]
'White Fragility' by Robin DiAngelo has been one of the most helpful books i have read on the subject of race and racism. It has helped put some language on some concepts i was aware of and it has shared some useful analogies that break down complex issues into much simpler ideas. i highly recommend you get a copy and give it a read if you are trying to navigate these race waters and [...]
i have just started reading Robin DiAngelo's 'White Fragility: Why it's so hard for white people to talk about racism' and am already in love. You should basically just go and buy the book. [Got it for R200 on Loot] It is that good. Am only part way in and already feels like such a game changer both in terms of the language it uses [and some helpful analogy already] and the ways in [...]
40 Tips to help white people to answer the question, 'But what can I do?' when it comes to race and reconciliation in South Africa. And we have made it to the end of the 40 - which one[s] felt most helpful or relevant to you [show us some love in the comments section]? In this post i give a quick summary of each tip to remind you of the journey we have made together [...]
#ButWhatCanIDo? Tip #36 We can be a little kinder to each other. Now this works as a tip and life lesson in general and the world would be a better place if most of us adhered to it, but specifically here i am thinking about white people on the journey away from racism to other white people on the same journey. 'When we forget that before us is first a person and then an opinion [...]
Are you still with us? That's amazing. If you have made it this far all the way from Tip #1 and are still engaged then i'm really stoked, well done. This can seem like a lot of stuff. I really do love white people and I still have a lot of work to do in many of these areas and it is just great to know that other people are committing to this stuff as [...]
Sunday morning i had the privilege of attending a public conversation between Lukhanyo Calata [author of 'My father died for this'] and Wilhelm Verwoed [author of 'Bloedbande'] as the final session of the Restitution conference that took place this weekend. i dropped some soundbites on Facebook as it was happening and some other things that the reflections prompted in me and figured it might be helpful for people who weren't on their social medias to gather [...]
We are heading towards the halfway point of this 40 tips for white people who are genuinely asking, 'But what can I do?' series and continuing with: #ButWhatCanIDo? Tip #16 This is an extension of yesterday's tip and is going to be another difficult one for anyone not committed to the work of transformation to hear and put into practice. And I'm not sure how often I even get this right or mess it up [...]
