I teach English. People often have a quizzical look when I respond to the question: “Which subjects do you teach?” (I won’t belabour the race issue that underpins the subtext of the quizzical look seeing as there aren’t many black English teachers in the southern suburbs of Cape Town). I often try to explain to […]
Equality
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
A birthday card for the Arch
Dear Archbishop Emeritus, Happy birthday! May October 7, the day of your 82nd birthday, be filled with joy. You are very special to many of us, and we are blessed to celebrate 82 years of your presence among us. This is a very short story of why you are special to me, and why I […]
Posted inEquality, Lifestyle
A call to kindness
At about 6.15pm on Friday evening Leah buzzed my home intercom. She was crying. An urgent, panicked cry that drew my attention away from the Seinfeld reruns I was watching on my laptop. The more I tried to tell her that I was busy, that I had no money or clothes to donate, the more […]
Posted inEquality, Media
Black penis, white penis – a cock-and-bull story
Let’s just get it out there for once and for all. Do black men have bigger penises than white men and is this what all the fuss over the past 350 years has been about? Or is the legend of the oversized black cock nothing more than a construct concocted by white men in order […]
Posted inBusiness, Equality, News/Politics
The terminal nature of poverty
By Gillian Schutte As academics, journalists, social commentators and activists we have a sense that we know the poor. We are outraged by poverty and inequality and advocate for equity and a life of dignity for all. We look for ways to bring the voices of the poor into the public debate and ask questions […]
Posted inEquality, Lifestyle
An Afrikaans arts festival and fish out of water…
I always wondered about that phrase, “a fish out of water”. To me, it always seemed like a chosen emotion. That is, you can only be a fish out of water if you chose to be one. In my head, any situation can be accommodated by opening yourself up to it, learning about it and […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
I must confess, I miss Thabo Mbeki
Today I found myself nostalgic for a man I had little appreciation for while he was still the president of our country. I found myself missing former president Thabo Mbeki. I was sitting at a table in Dime Todo lo que Sientes in Mexico City with a group of young idealists who, like me, have […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence
Can we talk ourselves out of sexism?
An ATM Bomber is a girl who spends all her boyfriend’s money. A Please Call Me is a schoolgirl. A Khanyi Mbau is a gold digger. So are Abomaskebengu. Skeres, slahloms and s’chipane are loose women. A yellowbone is a light-skinned woman. Pakistan is a woman with a big bum. A sidechick is a mistress […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
What’s feminism got to do with Samantha Lewthwaite?
“At least she’s done something for feminism.” This is what a friend said to me when she told me that one of the identified leaders behind al-Shabab is a woman, Samantha Lewthwaite, known as the “white widow”. My knee-jerk reaction was to defend feminism by saying that feminism is about non-violence and even when a […]
Posted inBusiness, Equality
SA remains a bastion of racism, while the rest of Africa moves on
How has the rest of Africa succeeded in putting its traumatic racial discrimination past behind it? Speak to anyone doing business in Africa and they will tell you that “race” is not an issue. They will tell you that doing business is not impeded by requirements to have “black” partners and that the concept of […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Who is black and who is not?
There has not been a time in the history of racial identity in this country when the number of people who describe or define themselves in terms of their race or language group or tribe has been so low. Far too few people continue to see themselves as black (or white even) (8.8%) compared to […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence
The peaceful village illusion
By Zimbini Ogle Send your children to the villages, they will be taught respect and dignity. The village life will inculcate good principles and life is peaceful in the villages, we were told. Yes Khaya Dlanga I agree with you on the violence in villages today. I remember the stories about how peaceful it was: […]