Do i as a person without children have anything of worth to offer as advice to those who do? This blog post or mini series comes out of an article i wrote for 1Africa this morning, titled, 'Other People's Children: An offer of help' with the bottom line being that i do believe we might have something to offer. Which led to me posting this as my status on Facebook: For ANYONE WHO DOESN'T HAVE ANY CHILDREN, [...]
[1] Is there something i can learn today from someone else? [2] When i stand in front of the mirror and reflect on the person i am in this moment, is there something obvious that needs to change? [3] Who are the people in my life i can ask about those things that might be more subtle in who i am right now that could perhaps use some attention and work to help make me [...]
What does it mean to Interrupt Whiteness? Well, in a world where Whiteness has been raised as a more-than better-than higher-than standard of beauty/worth/intelligence/rightness and so much more, this is clearly something we need to figure out, if we in fact do believe that all races are created equal - not the same, but equal. Colourblindness is not a healthy option because on the one hand it refuses to acknowledge that many people have been [...]
So i'm sitting a this coffee shop called Post in Joburg watching these two okes go at it. In the left corner, EFF member Napoleon Webster, who is notorious for having heckled Jacob Zuma at a meeting, for having heckled Cyril Ramaphosa at a meeting, for having heckled... well, you get the picture. He describes himself at one point in the 24 hours we got to hang together as a "rabble rouser" and i'm pretty [...]
A man was sitting opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his friends to him, the man said, "This poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their [...]
i don't get it, you know... i really don't understand how day in, day out you seem to make everything about you and by doing that you lose sight of everything that this thing could have brought to you in terms of helping you grow, to learn, to change to unlearn, to discern, to know and finally understand [breathe.] it's as if by making it about you you completely make it not about [...]
The other day my Facebook friend Innocentia shared this X-Men related tweet with me; And i thought it was great because it really brought a strong point home. So i shared it on Facebook. My friend Craig jumped on and asked me if i thought black people would appreciate being compared to mutants. i told him since a black person had shared the picture with me in the first place that i thought it was okay. [...]
A guest post by my new friend, Thandi, that is worth taking a good listen to and sharing with your people... and i join her in the hope that her children will NEVER wish that they were white... IF I WERE WHITE, I’D HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BREATHE There my parents were, struggling in Apartheid South Africa on a small wage, doing the type of work only ‘they’ were created for-according to the architects of [...]
i was chatting to a black grade six girl yesterday afternoon as we struggled through some Afrikaans homework together about Vasco de Gama. Before we got started with the homework, i asked her what her name is. She said it for me, followed by the words, "It's very hard." She then added her nickname and the english name her sister gave her. i said her name back to her with a question mark intonation at the [...]
i was chatting to a black grade six girl yesterday afternoon as we struggled through some Afrikaans homework together about Vasco de Gama. It was all going pretty well until she turned to me and asked me, "Do you like being umlungu [white person]?" "Why do you ask?" i inquired. "Well you know, all the umlungus have the nice cars and lots of money." My heart dropped. i decided to deflect the question a little. [...]
