My favourite space on my blog is probably the Taboo Topics section where we look at topics rarely spoken about such as losing a baby or infertility, singleness or being a parent of young children when it's really really hard, abortion and adoption, issues of race and many more... with one exception these posts take the form of stories of real live people who put their names and faces on them to help make them more [...]
Well, as a first time blogger I’m not really sure where to start and what to write. I cannot say that I am really good with words, but this I know….I do not want to keep quiet about this and if writing gives me an opportunity to be heard then I’m grabbing hold of this with everything I’ve got. I’ve always known that I will adopt children one day…not sure why – I guess it [...]
I am very excited to introduce this Panel of Race Experts... and by 'Race Experts' i mean friends of mine who happen to be from a variety of different race group backgrounds and are not claiming to be experts or to speak on behalf of their particular race in any way, shape or form. I have invited them to be on this panel because they are people who i respect and who are passionate about [...]
What a shock some of you reading this will get when you discover that my dad, yes, my biological father, is coloured. “But you look so white!” many have noted. Well done. It is true – I am a mixed baby, although I got the paler skin of our mother while my brother has many a time been compared to a Mexican. We’ve heard some interesting guesses of our ethnicity over the years: Portuguese, Brazilian, [...]
Here are simply a collection of stories from people who have lived in countries or areas of diversity and have a race theme to a part of their story which they have so graciously decided to share with us: Meet Deborah Dowlath [Trinidad and Tobago] Meet Kevin Lloyd James Lok [South Africa] Meet Caley Daniels [South Africa] Meet Susan Hayden [reblog of 'Disco Pants & a Mountain' post]
What makes a person? What makes me, me? For me I’ve struggled with identity for my entire Life – one of the biggest struggles I’ve had over my identity is the one over ‘race’ (now many would consider it strange for a white guy to struggle with identity over race and don’t get me wrong – I’ve never thought I am not white) the reasons being that I was brought up (My mom assisted [...]
When Brett asked for some volunteers on this topic I sprung at the chance but it has taken me a while to get some words down as I wasn’t sure what to say or what aspect to focus on or what I really wanted people to get out of this post… To be honest I am still not 100% sure but I hope either way it will challenge you to think deeply about race, relationships [...]
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. [...]
My First Motherless Mother's Day Being a Mother I want to be angry. I usually reserve this day [Mother's Day] as my right to be secretly bitter and jealous. You all go on and on about how great your mother is all day long while historically I would hide in my room with the covers over my head, counting down the hours until it was safe to emerge. I am allowed to do this once [...]
This feels like an important part of the conversation to spend some time on and i would love to hear your response to this. You may have seen the article by Princeton student, Tal Fortgang, titled 'Checking my Privilege: Character as the Basis of Privilege' that has been doing the rounds this week in which Tal [as an 18 year old, good to remember and hold in context] begins by explaining what his problem with [...]