i have been looking forward to this series for a while. A while back a number of my friends shared some of their stories relating to Adoption which you can read over here, which is already in some ways a topic that is rarely spoken about. But when it comes to adopting a child from a race or culture group different to yours, then i imagine there are a whole lot of other factors that [...]
How would you fill those blanks in? My good friend Sarah Bessey [slash i read her blog and she once tweetered me] has literally just released her latest book, ‘Out of Sorts: Making Peace with an Evolving Faith’ which you can buy over here [and probably should!] Today Sarah is hosting a synchroblog where she invited close personal friends [slash anyone who stumbled upon her blog] to write a post based on the above title.So [...]
The past two weeks have been an incredible time. Yes, some of the conversations on Social Media got a little aggro, but there were also some really incredible interactions, both online and off and it feels like the #FeesMustFall movement and events really got a lot of people thinking. And introduced many new people to some of the conversations we have been having on Privilege and Restitution and Racism and more. There were a number [...]
So much good stuff happening all over the internet the last two weeks in terms of helping us understand some of the challenges we are facing. i stumbled upon this in the Warehouse’s most recent newsletter and wanted to share it with you as some really practical steps for moving forwards together. These steps apparently emerged from a conversation between Linda Martindale, Caroline Powell and my wife, tbV [the beautiful Val]. We have heard a [...]
So it’s official. South Africa has joined the International Community of Hashtagging games with the first official tag game which took place yesterday which was #ArtAMovieOrTv. Every Wednesday at 12 lunchtime our time on @HashtagRoundup – Come and Play. And it was a LOT of fun. Thank you to everyone who pitched up and got stuck in. […]
It's official. Today at 12 lunchtime South African time, @afrikkinhashtag launches the first official on the @HashtagRoundup app South African game with a bid to get South Africans in on this game phenomenon that has been sweeping the world. As i explain in more detail in my post 'Is it at a bird? Is it at a plane? NO! It’s @AFrikkinHashtag' the basic premise involves someone presenting a tag for the game, eg #DifferentEndingsToHorrorMovies was one [...]
Mumford and Fish These are three of my best friends: Dunc, Majay and Rob. And missing from that pic is Reegs who is also one of my longest life buddies. And of course my wife, the beautiful Val [aka tbV, which so many of you keep thinking stands for The Lovely Val because of, um, the B, obviously] who made this photo [taken at my 40th after these clowns performed a satirical rendition [...]
We caught a glimpse of this in the #IAmStellenbosch campaign where a group of well-meaning students drew up some posters highlighting something about them that made them unique or different to the stereotype that their skin colour or background might typically suggest. It received a huge backlash from the media and people of all races across the country for a number of reasons. Possibly the biggest one was that once again we saw a race problem [...]
My friends Alexa Russell Matthews and Nicole Joshua recently ran a workshop titled, "The 'Colour' Elephant in the Room" which you can read some of a participant's experience of over here. What stood out to me though was this list of what was referred to as the 'Ten Commandments' which was the basis of a commitment to engage well with each other. For those of us seeking to be positively involved in conversation and action in the [...]
When i was looking for an image to reflect the idea of becoming an Ally i found this poster and really liked it. Because the question that i am wrestling with at the moment is just that: How to Be a Better Ally, specifically when it comes to matters of Race. And possibly one of the biggest pieces of this puzzle is that the answer should not have to come from people of colour. [...]