...is possibly one of the most untruthful sentences we can utter. In fact the word "but" following the phrase "I'm not racist" is pretty much always a strong indicator that the very next thing said is going to reek of racism. This post is in response to the status that Matthew Theunissen posted on Facebook the other day in response to the announcement by Fikile Mbalula's ban on South African sports associations hosting major international events. [...]
i just had a brief conversation with a Facebook friend that began with him writing the words, "Knowing what white privilege is..." and then asking a question. Having learnt from some people who are really good at Questions over the last few years, i responded with one of my own: Well i would need to know what you understand when you say that you get what it means to have white privilege - how would [...]
It begins with a cartoon posted on Facebook: And before long someone jumping on with a "But Zuma orchestrated the Red Wedding, is responsible for ongoing Adam Sandler movies and killed all the unicorns!" To which I responded with: Racism 101: There is a scenario in which we can comfortably say that Jacob Zuma has not been a great leader in many respects AND also see that there is something in ourselves which needs to [...]
Recently it was my pleasure to connect with Jana and Ampie Niehaus from Durban who recently felt like a certain geographical move was on the cards for them. i engaged with Jana on a series of ten back and forth emails in which we tried to keep it to about 100 words a comment. It was really great to get a bit of an understanding of why they are making the move and what the [...]
This is a follow up to the post i wrote a few days ago looking at petrol attendants in South Africa. Before i actually wrote the previous post [or while i was writing it, really] i stuck this survey question as a status on Facebook: Monday Survey: How much [if anything] do you tip your petrol attendant in South Africa when throwing in some petrol? Which i would highly recommend you to cut and paste on [...]
Do you remember where you voted in 1994? Where you were when the twin towers fell on 9/11? How about when we won the 1995 World Cup of Rugby? More importantly, where did you stand in 2016? The year everything changed... We are in the middle of making History. It started picking up pace with Rhodes Must Fall which was followed by Fees Must Fall and either the Anti-Corruption marches or the Zuma Must Fall [...]
You can do it! You can take one more step! i think i know to some extent how you are feeling. You're tired. You're frustrated. You've really been making an effort in terms of these race and privilege conversations and you just want to get through another day without having to feel bad about something else. You feel attacked when you've tried to give an opinion. You feel misunderstood when you have made every effort [...]
In South Africa we have people who pump our petrol for us. i generally try to tip the petrol attendant to thank them for doing a good job. But what is a good tip? Years ago it used to feel like a R2 coin or a R5 coin was good. Returning from Americaland 18 months ago and continuing to top R2 to R5 suddenly became something tbV and i started to question. As a consumer [...]
My name is brett "Fish" anderson and i am ashamed it took me so long to get here. A BIT OF MY JOURNEY i didn't grow up in a particulary racist family, in fact if anything, my parents taught us to view all people as equal and deserving of love and respect. i was very fortunate during my time at college to be engaged in race conversations through the lens of the Student Christian Association [...]
"When I came back from overseas, the road I had grown up on had been changed to Robert Sobukwe drive. That is all I knew of him." One of the comments after the Robert Sobukwe documentary 60 to 80 of us watched together last night in a cafe called Jou Ma Se Kombuis situated on the edge of Manenberg. i was not oblivious to the fact that the majority of people in the room [although [...]
