Two quick thoughts about whiteness that have been inspired by pieces that two amazing women [Jess and Jana] have written for my upcoming book on race. Less than ten percent of people in South Africa are white, by way of introduction and context. [1] Does living in the suburbs give you the illusion that most people in South Africa are white? In Cape Town at least, there are suburbs where this is true, and still a [...]
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 [...]
THE END [For Part II, which is a little wordier, click here]
i kinda stumbled into an impromptu dinner after the cricket [Go Proteas!] last night. One of the people sitting at the table with us was Phil Potter [no relation!] from the UK who is here to speak at a conference called Fresh Expressions, which looks at different ways of doing and being church. We all got talking about some of the issues South Africa is facing at the moment and right in the middle of it [...]
Let's crank this thing up a notch. Two articles that have caught my attention recently [Thankx Tsholofelo for the first one] and have a lot to say in this Race conversation that we've started and are engaging with each other on [although am still hoping to see more of that]. These feel like they could be part of the 'can of worms' and 'Pandora's Box' i was promised [threatened with?] when i said that i [...]
This is perhaps too long, but I've just been given a platform to vent out years and years worth of frustrations and I'm jumping in head first. But before I begin, let me say that I have way too many white friends to think that white people as a whole are racist, and I don't know if all of what I'm about to say applies to my friends cos I think (or hope) my friends [...]
