Last night we hosted our second Deep Dive Dinner Conversation in Durban. While Saturday's was a group of all white people chatting about Identity as a white person in South Africa, last night was a completely more diverse group of twelve including indian, coloured, black and white. Two very different dinners, but each with a specific focus and both providing some amazing conversation. But the most outstanding thing for me at both dinners was the [...]
Some thoughts linked to #BlackMonday that took place in South Africa this past week... i imagine an up market coffee shop somewhere in the heart of Cape Town where black clothed wearing upper class people are sipping on their frozen no-whip skinny ironies... = = = i woke up this morning with no idea what i was going to wear - which is stupid, really, cos Monday is Batman t-shirt day [this is not a [...]
You can tell i'm getting over my pity party. Well, maybe you didn't know i was having a pity party but it's my birthday and i'm trapped at home and my wife is out at work and the one thing i have to look forward to is an Improv show i am doing tonight which a total of seven people have booked for. And a number of those may or may not be related to [...]
When it comes to things about race, i have been on a journey for just over two years. i have certainly not arrived and assume this will be a life long journey. But i did realise that i couldn't ignore it any more or choose to get involved if, when and how it suited me. Living in South Africa right now means that issues of race, justice and poverty have to be forefront in my [...]
The other day i asked a simple question in a Race Engagement group i belong to on Facebook, believing it was a safe place. i actually had typed out my question as a status and then decided last second to move it to the group cos it would probably be more appropriate there. The first person who responded made me feel like an idiot for asking the question and challenged my sincerity in asking it. [...]
This is a follow on from yesterday's All Lives Smatter post so if you haven't read that yet, start over there... Some key thoughts from part I: # It would have taken an absolute miracle for someone to grow up in apartheid South Africa and be completely not affected or indoctrinated by racism in some shape or form, hence my resonance with other white people who refer to themselves as Recovering Racist - not because [...]
All lives matter? True. i thought we had gotten to a point where we didn't need to have this conversation again. But after explaining it on two or three different conversations threads this week i figured i would give it another go - some people are still catching on to this one. And i get it - it is quite subtle and nuanced and until you get it, you don't get it... so we need [...]
i am busy reading Eusebius McKaiser's "Run Racist Run!" It has some great and helpful insights, but this piece on white people expecting people of colour to help us not be racist i found really helpful in terms of putting words to something i've started to understand for a while. Also as a helpful response to those people who have tried to understand things and get involved in the race conversation only to receive push back [...]
Have you heard about the #NotOnOurWatch movement of interrupting racism? i have really enjoyed having some back and forth conversations with my friend Trevor [whose work you can see on his Swart Donkey blog] and this one we had in the last few weeks, that has now been converted to a blog post, was one of my favourite... just in terms of getting a conversation started and hopefully there is some food for thought in [...]
My friend Jess shared this with me a while back and in all the sickness and busyness and awayness it kinda got lost for a bit, but i found it again and there is some super helpful stuff in here: When Beyonce’ dropped her single, Formation, off her new album Lemonade, I sat in a coffee shop and cried while watching it on repeat. Not just because I know I’ll never have such good dance moves, [...]
