So the other day i posted my first Race with Me video of a series i plan to run on the topic of the white people question, "When can we stop saying sorry?" and "When have we done enough?". Which you can watch here if you missed it. Then yesterday i posted this question as a status on Facebook: Question for white people in South Africa... in 1994 after decades of apartheid, when the laws [...]
In this video i take a brief look at the question of when we as white people can move on from needing to talk about and act on apartheid stuff...
i wanted to create a video version of much of what is blogged about on here in terms of Race and particularly South Africa. Not because i know it all, but because i have learned and am learning some stuff and want to share it with others who might be needing to learn. The title 'Race with me' is a multi-layered name that simply invites you to engage with issues of race with me, while at [...]
i can't stand the term 'woke'. But i get the meaning behind it and sometimes we need to use words we don't like, simply because that's is how the majority of people will understand what we're talking about. But anytime i ever use the word 'woke' [which is really hardly ever if i can help it] i give it a huge disclaimer [something along the lines of "i hate this word"] and always use the [...]
i stopped to fill up my car with petrol today and got really mad and jumped on to my phone and wrote this as my Facebook status: Disclaimer: this post will not have the amount of swearing i feel it deserves. Caltex, Main Road, Diep River, know that i am gunning for you. How DARE you have petrol attendants working for you who have to change their isiXhosa names for English names because their names [...]
You can tell i'm getting over my pity party. Well, maybe you didn't know i was having a pity party but it's my birthday and i'm trapped at home and my wife is out at work and the one thing i have to look forward to is an Improv show i am doing tonight which a total of seven people have booked for. And a number of those may or may not be related to [...]
'I began to understand something quite important about South Africa: My fear of blacks was obscuring my understanding of the fear blacks felt for my white skin.' [Rian Malan, My Traitor's Heart] i am almost finished reading 'My Traitor's Heart' by Rian Malan which was highly recommended to me. The tagline of the book is 'A South African exile returns to face his country, his tribe, and his conscience.' Hm, it's been an interesting book [...]
For months i've been speaking about the idea of #NotOnOurWatch as a movement worth joining. i know a lot of people have been challenged by that and in their own ways are joining in [i know because i am having conversations with some of them and assume there are a lot more] But i think it's helpful to clarify something. Just read an article that suggested calling someone racist isn't helpful at all in terms [...]
i attended the Restitution Conference yesterday at the Castle in Cape Town, cos slavery. [And am going back later today for part II] Which in some ways just feels like a thing i did. Oh i went to this thing and stuff happened and people spoke and it was good. Excepting that it wasn't just a thing. It was the first ever Restitution Conference in South Africa. And that something like 21 years after our [...]
When it comes to things about race, i have been on a journey for just over two years. i have certainly not arrived and assume this will be a life long journey. But i did realise that i couldn't ignore it any more or choose to get involved if, when and how it suited me. Living in South Africa right now means that issues of race, justice and poverty have to be forefront in my [...]
