South Africa2018-09-03T06:40:08+02:00

SOUTH AFRICA

These are some of the recent posts that i and others have made to hopefully challenge and encourage and educate you as you try and figure out how to do life better in South Africa. Please feel free to share any of these posts that are helpful with people you think it might help to take one more step towards…

All Lives Smatter – a collection of thoughts about race, painting all people with the same brush and the need for whites to engage with whites

All White Lives Matter – a “Black Lives Matter for Dummies” kind of post

Ask before you leap [to conclusions] – a post looking at how we engage when we engage with others on race

8 Steps to help me become a better ally of my friends of colour – a short but helpful reminder

But pity the mutants – a painful look at how white people are able to feel more empathy for fictional characters and pets than black people

But What Can I Do? – 40 Tips for white South Africans genuinely asking this question

Entitlement with an “i” – a brief glimpse into the problem of entitlement in our country

If I were white, I’d have been able to breathe – guest post by Thandi Nkomo

Race with me – short video clips explaining race issues simply to white people

She turned to me and asked me if being an Umlungu was something i enjoyed.

The Better Black/Coloured/Indian – some friends share stories about the standard of whiteness that has been pressured on them

The queen, my dad, and Sarafina – guest post by Thandi Nkomo

Ways in which white people are better than black people [part I] – a very short post.

Ways in which white people aren’t better than black people [part II] – a more wordier post.

When someone with an African name gives you their “easier” English name.

When the offence is that you’re offended – looking a little deeper into entitlement in South Africa.

A glimpse of dignity: a parable of Napoleon Webster

By |June 19th, 2018|Categories: heroes or heroic moments, inspire-ations, pain and Hope, South Africa|Tags: , , , , |

"Where did you two meet?" "That's easy. He [me] is an activist and I [Napoleon] am an activist. We were introduced by another activist [Nigel Branken]." That was part of an exchange that happened yesterday [...]

The black woman speaker, the deputy principal and a truckload of exclamation marks…

By |June 1st, 2018|Categories: inspire-ations, race vibes, South Africa, things to wrestle with, thorts of other people|Tags: , , , , |

Can i just start by saying that i absolutely LOVE the [majority of the] community who wrestle with me with aspects of race and privilege and poverty and more on social media. It is probably [...]

From the Bottom Up

By |May 14th, 2018|Categories: heroes or heroic moments, inspire-ations, local news, pain and Hope, positive ideas for change, South Africa|Tags: , , , , |

When i say "Cape Flats", you say "Violence!" "Cape Flats!" "VIOLENCE!!" "Cape Flats!" "VIOLENCE!!" Because, along with Nazareth and townships and maybe even Africa as a whole, that is the kind of mindset that too [...]

Give the change you want to see…

By |May 3rd, 2018|Categories: activities, inspire-ations, positive ideas for change, South Africa|Tags: , , , , |

About a week ago i was hanging out with a group of friends discussing some quite incredible stories of generosity that we had all been involved in this past year. Each person in the group [...]

“Your very presence is violent!”

By |April 12th, 2018|Categories: pain and Hope, race vibes, South Africa, things to wrestle with|Tags: , , , , |

Words i heard last night. Not the kind of thing that feels great coming from someone who has a history of giving you a hard time or trolling you on social media, but something you [...]

How Jesus followers might want to think about reparation

By |March 14th, 2018|Categories: inspire-ations, South Africa, thorts of other people, what i am reading|Tags: , , , |

i wonder if there might be something South Africa could learn from the story of Zacchaeus in the Bible. As a much-hated tax collector known for robbing and cheating the people he has an encounter [...]

Blessed are those who clamp down on appropriation…

By |March 10th, 2018|Categories: inspire-ations, South Africa|Tags: , , , , , |

...for they will have to wear their own hand-made crap. Or something. This whole appropriation thing is quite confusing to me and feels a little dangerous with the chief danger being hypocrisy. It feels like [...]

Let my people go…

By |March 6th, 2018|Categories: inspire-ations, positive ideas for change, South Africa, things to wrestle with, thorts of other people, what i am reading|Tags: , , |

Who are your 'my people'? i was watching a typical exchange about some race issue on the book of face-offs yesterday when something struck me... The man commenting - who happened to be an afrikaner - [...]

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