It’s been 20 years and my how times flies. So much has happened and in the midst of it all people have continued to try and exist within the paradigm of a “rainbow nation”. This effort has come off less like the Mrs Balls advert where everyone really loves chutney (and each other) and more […]
race
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
A Biko moment
I’ve been having a Biko moment for a while now. A “Biko [1] moment” is that moment when someone says something racist but I’m left wondering if I’m reading too much into the situation. That moment when I have to debate in mind if I feel welcome in a space because there’s an atmosphere of […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Khaya Dlanga…white South Africans are trying
By Jordan Griffiths In a recent article Khaya Dlanga looked at race relations in our country 20 years on and presented the argument that in his view black people have made more of an effort towards the process of integration. He cited how black South Africans move to white suburbs, learn English and Afrikaans and […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Resistant whiteness: On Pistorius, Memela and the dead bodies of women
Sandile Memela recently issued an apology to “countrymen” in the form of Dr Piet Mulder, The Freedom Front Plus, The FW de Klerk Foundation “and everyone who was offended” by his article “Oscar would be a hero if Reeva were a black man”. In the article, Memela questions if Reeva Steenkamp were a black man, […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
An apology to my fellow countrymen
To: Dr Piet Mulder The Freedom Front Plus The FW de Klerk Foundation And everyone who was offended My recent article on the Mail & Guardian’s Thought Leader website on Tuesday, March 4 2014 has hurt, embarrassed and insulted fellow countrymen. In the article, I questioned whether Oscar Pistorius would be on trial if he […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Oscar would be a hero if Reeva were a black man
[For an update to this post see An apology to my fellow countrymen by Sandile Memela] Would Oscar Pistorius be on trial for murder if Reeva Steenkamp had turned out to be a black man? In fact, on Valentine’s Day last year when Pistorius fired four fatal shots at close range through a locked bathroom […]
Posted inNews/Politics
I’m exhausted
I’m exhausted by my privilege. I’m exhausted with restaurants filled with primarily white patrons. I’m exhausted that those serving these white consumers are mainly black. I’m exhausted by the ignorance of those in the vicinity to see the difference. I’m exhausted when I climb off a Gautrain bus only to see a man scrounging through […]
Posted inNews/Politics
We have no white leaders
It is frustration with so-called white leadership, or lack of it, that has made me ask: What has happened to men and women of integrity in our white community? I am talking about leaders of the calibre of Beyers Naude, Braam Fischer and Ruth First. It may just be ignorance on my part but I […]
Posted inEquality
For Sunduza, Thulo and other black women who choose life
Written with Gcobani Qambela “It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights — if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different.” In the novel The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison writes about the […]
Posted inEquality
Welcome to Club Racist
Now don’t all come clamouring at the door, wanting to know where you can sign up and get your free Klan hoods and Jessica Leandra*-themed bikinis. If you’re white and Afrikaans, you already ARE in the racist club. Let me explain, the racist club is that unspoken society that exists within the white community where […]
Posted inEquality, Media
‘12 Years a Slave’: Is it relevant to South Africans?
By Thulani Grenville-Grey I saw 12 Years a Slave recently. I wanted to see something real that would make me feel “deep-down” things, you know, fundamental things. I wanted to feel outraged about something worth feeling outraged about, have an opinion about an Oscar-nominated movie, form a critique, have something to argue about into the […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, News/Politics
Now for the 21st century round of South African sex panic
Twenty years into democracy and the battles to capture and define South African identities are at fever pitch. Race seems to have a new lease on life and, unexpectedly, so does sexuality. Some say that South Africa’s future is black, in the sense that state power will never be in the hands of a white-defined […]