Just before tbV and i left Americaland last year August, i started reading 'The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the age of Colorblindness' by Michelle Alexander, a tough but brilliant read focusing on the system of mass incarceration of black people in Americaland. Then we had to leave and i had to give the book back having only read two or three chapters. But now we're back in Americaland and i saw it lying [...]
A further extract from the same chapter as the last one i shared, this one looks at the history that is taught and the need for young black men and women to have stories and heroes they can relate to: One writer makes the point that in an effort to destroy completely the structures that had been built up in the African Society and to impose their imperialism with an unnerving totality the colonialists were [...]
I used to be a vegetarian Back in 2013, I decided to become a vegetarian. I followed a meat-free diet for a solid year. I didn’t stick to it because I never had a good reason for becoming a vegetarian in the first place. There were circumstances that lead me to the decision, but none of them were strong convictions. 1. It was my fourth year in res and I was tired of figuring out [...]
The other day i wrote a post titled, 'Do the Different Need a Disclaimer?' in which i touched on how meeting someone with a disability or condition that makes them quite different to you can be challenging or scary in terms of not wanting to be awkward or embarrass them [or yourself] and my friend Michelle wrote a long comment in response. i asked her if she would upgrade it to a post as it [...]
10 things vegetarians are sick of hearing / your vegetarian friends want you to know I became a vegetarian on my ninth birthday. This usually elicits shock and the assumption that I am vegetarian because of my family / culture / religious beliefs. But, no – I was just a child who was interested in where my food came from and when I knew the facts eating meat (read meat, fish, poultry) didn’t make sense [...]
In my quest to continue learning South African history from voices other than those i grew up with i was encouraged to read, 'I Write What I Like' by Steve Biko. Not so much a story as a collection of letters and speeches, this book is really helpful as it contains real time words, thoughts and ideas from one of South Africa's great leaders written during the height of apartheid. The Catholic Herald had this [...]
My journey into vegetarianism started how I imagine it did for many other people. I sat (in my case in my school’s hall) watching a documentary on chicken farming. I was horrified. I had always suspected that this sort of this was happening to the animals we eat but I had never seen it first-hand. After watching this movie I went home and told my already over-worked parents that I was now a vegetarian. They [...]
Why I’m [kind of, mostly] a vegetarian. Let me start off by saying that I like eating animals. In my early university days, I probably ate a bacon sandwich at least four times a week. This was on top of my regular meat-with-every-meal intake. I come from an Italian family. Growing up in South Africa, these two cultural combinations meant that meat was always very high on the meal priority list. But it has been [...]
My Facebook friend S'thabiso gives this topic a little bit of a different spin as she addresses: 5 questions you ask guaranteed to break the peace with any 'black' vegetarian If you have prior to reading this asked any of the below please kindly proceed to the nearest tree and hug it tightly and ask Zeus to advocate on your behalf for mother nature to forgive you - repeat this three times whiles doing a [...]
I was always taught to show love to animals, dogs, cats, cows, pigs, horses, etc. But never was I really challenged to think about the meat that was lying in front of me to eat. Meat was different than those cute animals we would see in someone’s yard or pasture. Or at least I thought. I made the decision to switch to being a vegetarian 12 years ago. Being born and raised in Texas it [...]