Race Has Nothing to do with You

losing battles

2012-01-27T05:37:00.000-08:00

If the purpose of schools are to get children to pass tests and exams then we already lost the battle because the purpose of tests is to divide society into those who pass and those who are stupid, dumb, failures and since most national exams in South Africa have pass rates of 20-25% most people in SA are framed by schools as stupid, dumb, failures. And very few educators seem remotely willing

street set

2012-01-25T09:05:00.000-08:00

rose street south africa 47 men today awaiting work day laborers hiding in slivers of shadow miniscule protection from beatdown sun street toilets and cars trucks zooming past if in way, body smashed and as i handed out apples small sustenance samples one young man came up to me and said "thanks, bhuti, this is the first thing a white person ever gave me."

predatory lending

2012-01-25T04:49:00.000-08:00

Just met with a micro lending firm in Cape Town; in a sparsely furnished set of offices in a converted home in a mostly Coloured community. The staff appeared all Black, and they were eager for my assistance. I told them I was looking to find funding options for several small groups of women, who are in need of small infusions of cash. These groups, women who have banded together to sew school

stampeding to get to college

2012-01-11T01:30:00.000-08:00

The annual stampede to try to get into the University of Johannesburg resulted in one mother being trampled on as students and parents fought each other to get into the building to get registered for college. Despite the ridiculous and lazy argument that Black and Brown children do not want an education, the lack of access to university education is increasingly obvious (as well as ridiculously

olden days

2012-01-10T12:30:00.000-08:00

References to the olden days, to Times When Life Was Better always always always remind me of slavery and Apartheid and Times When Black Latino Indigenous Peoples were killed with no regard so when checking out books at the University of the Western Cape's library and one two three different Coloured people told me that I would have appreciated how much better life was under Apartheid As always

Hating Native Americans

2012-01-09T00:27:00.000-08:00

Can anyone tell me why South Africa loves to hate on Native Americans so much? In the "Coon Parade" there were a number of people dressed up like vague stereotypes of indigenous people - all with some sort of Native American theme (if this was the only one, I'd think it might just be a cave man, but many also had headdresses complete with painted feathers) (picture taken from our

internalized assimilation

2012-01-08T06:25:00.000-08:00

I've been watching and listening with anticipation the Coon Carnivals (Kapse Klopse) here in the Bo-Kaap. There's talk of how these street processions stem from a combination of enslaved Africans and Muslims celebrating their one annual day off and an unclear connection to either African Americans performing minstrel shows or White Americans in Blackface performing minstrel shows. And so with

celebrating racist history

2012-01-08T05:57:00.000-08:00

Went to the Bo-Kaap Museum recently, which is just down the street from my house. And right there in the middle of the tiny three room museum was their largest exhibit: an incredibly well-preserved original confederate flag from the US Alabama, a ship repaired right here in Colonial South Africa to help the confederates preserve the legacy of slavery in the US. Nothing in the exhibit suggested

effective colonization

2012-01-07T13:22:00.000-08:00

You know Colonization is effective when people of color believe in the language, logic, and privilege of approximate Whiteness more so than they do their own languages, cultures, music, ways of thinking, and ways of being. And so when Black South Africans tell me that the way Black South Africans talk and write is not standard English, I'm reminded of the way in which Black Americans are taught

humility

2012-01-02T07:21:00.000-08:00

Despite knowing that racism means articles about race might not get published, I sometimes willingly overlook that small tiny insignificant reality and submit to a journal that does not explicitly focus on race (which also usually means 95% of reviewers and editors are...White). And every every time my articles gets rejected. Articles about equity, however, are published voraciously. When I

2012 in South Africa

2011-12-31T14:36:00.000-08:00

Its 2012 in South Africa (and just after 1 pm in Oakland): Below our apartment, columns of minstrel-framed "coloured" marching bands stream along the streets, blasting horns, drums, tambourines, and dancing in their handmade costumes, continuing hundreds of years of tradition to celebrate one of the only days folks of color were allowed (by Whites) to not work. And as the deep boom of the

rustling

2011-12-28T22:35:00.000-08:00

rustling trash-filled streets plastic bottles swirling 'round paper bits cardboard slits and bodies swaying in the gutsy wind as the sun sets upon another tired soul pushed beyond the brink of dignity by those in search of comfort.

Americans Noticing

2011-12-17T23:34:00.000-08:00

Americans, the ones who pay attention, who have read, studied, examined South African racial histories and recognized the many obvious parallels of non-creative colonial racial policies and practices of both countries, or at least who reflect a bit about correlations between skin tone and poverty, come to South Africa and generally see the same thing: Dramatic Racism and an almost total Systemic

hip hop in muizenberg?

2011-12-12T01:37:00.000-08:00

At a small one box room show in Muizenberg this past Saturday, supporting Heal the Hood, and enjoying both the old school vibes of old school Black Noise, and the youthful movement of the dancers connected with Heal the Hood. I was reminded of Oakland energy, where young people learn to move their bodies to beats and dj's, often with conscious, purposefully anti-oppressive lyrical floetry spoken

the thing

2011-12-04T09:06:00.001-08:00

the thing about racism is that white people (and lighter skinned privileged or weathly folks) can deny racism exists and then people of color have to convince unconvincible people that racism really does exist or else the oppression people of color face is deemed personal opinion

circumference

2011-11-30T07:38:00.001-08:00

death suffering threats of loss painful shredding of dignity violence ignorant money-centered health care capitalistic framing of illness drug-induced silencing of those in fear of losing control over their lives and all of a sudden cant swallow cannot be comfortable just surviving becomes infinitely more relevant than battling white racism and black internalized racism and this is exactly how /

hospitals and life

2011-11-26T07:24:00.001-08:00

Obviously I've slowed way way down on my updates...still spending most of each day at the hospital with my friend and his family, but slowly beginning to adjust life to get back to work, to writing, to storytelling from AmaXhosa perspectives, to challenging the incredibly deeply rooted racism in South African schools, hospitals, air, life. And who would be surprised that when my friend was able

violence swirling

2011-11-08T09:16:00.000-08:00

As I'm supporting a colleague here, collecting Township stories of racism, abuse, violence, occasional laughter, and documenting, in local isixhosa words and perspectives, often about education (or the lack thereof),;I've been hearing handfuls of experiences of young men. Most of these young men live in dire poverty, and most are sharing how they got to the place where lives of violence seemed to

priorities

2011-11-03T12:50:00.000-07:00

Been spending most of each day at the hospital with a dear friend smashed head squashed body he survives and somedays i imagine he'll be walking talking smiling seeing soon tomorrow please tomorrow and the threat fear scare of losing someone so close always reminds me what matters is less about the politics of education even though that's exactly what gets us into worlds where life is valued

she said what?

2011-10-26T06:56:00.000-07:00

She said this: "Well, its not like you Americans could understand racism. You guys ended that a lot time ago - all your Blacks are just as wealthy as the Whites are. Its why Americans never understand South Africa. We were never racist like you guys - just through policies. Now that the policies are over, the racism is over. The difference now is that Blacks here are more African." (its

drinkin coke

2011-10-22T05:36:00.000-07:00

drinkin coke on a couch in khayelitsha listening to / spitting out poetry on poverty as four men get to know each other in broken isiXhosa and isiNgesi drinkin coke on a couch in khayelitsha gusty winds kicking soft dirt swirls across the floor we laugh at politicians with dozens of wives and cars imagine a world where men learn grow earn respect drinkin coke on a couch in khayelitsha rage about

losing activism

2011-10-17T06:34:00.000-07:00

One of the gentlemen at the community-held HIV-education course in yet another segregated township was clear about part of the problem since Apartheid was overthrown: "We lost the one most powerful thing we had in South Africa: activism!" He was not remembering Apartheid in a positive light, but simply acknowledging that once a huge battle is won, often, people stop resisting. But once the

mr. cab driver

2011-10-17T06:29:00.000-07:00

i am not going to talk about mr. cab driver no matter how great and relevant Lenny Kravitz' song is i am not going to talk about mr. cab driver flagged down by the black men on the corner helping us out (their story gets silenced by the always overwhelming negative impact of racism) i am not going to talk about mr. cab driver with his trunk open, sneering at me, then the black woman with

occupy wall street

2011-10-17T00:18:00.000-07:00

Desmond Tutu argued that "If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality."* His point, always relevant, can be directly translated to the potentially spreading Occupy Wall Street movement. Those who have sat on the sidelines, watching, frustrated, as the world's poor swell in ranks, as poverty explodes and wealth

south african racism doesnt exist....ha!

2011-10-13T13:56:00.000-07:00