Let's get on with the debate then.

Five unhelpful responses to racism

Some people have called for “a dialogue on race relations”. So let’s get on with it then. I want to list here, and discuss, five unhelpful responses to racism that pop up all too frequently when there’s an item in the news cycle – thank you Cape Town – that make us awkward about racism. […]

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Not talking about racism is not the solution

Not talking about racism is not the solution

It’s not cool to talk about a “global war on terrorism” (GWOT) largely because former US president George Bush gave the expression a bad name. His successor, Barack Obama, explicitly dropped the expression, stating that: “We must define our effort not as a boundless ‘Global War on Terror’, but rather as a series of persistent, […]

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Ant-racism campaign with iol

Let’s tackle racism where it lives

It has been an interesting few months in terms of race relations in South Africa, with social media storms over remarks made by KZN estate agent Penny Sparrow, mobile gym owner Justin van Vuuren, economist Chris Hart and eNCA anchor Andrew Barnes, among others. Sparrow and Van Vuuren made seriously derogatory comments about black people, […]

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Anti-racism work tends to focus either on socialisation dialogues or on educational efforts and is concentrated in only a handful of under-resourced organisations, says the writer. Picture: Denzil Margele

Fighting the resurgence of racism

The Anti-Racism Network of SA hopes to find a response to a hardening of racist attitudes, but it must be grounded and open, writes Luke Spiropoulos. This weekend, the Ahmed Kathrada and Nelson Mandela foundations hosted the first of what will become a series of historic workshops and conferences of the Anti-Racism Network of South […]

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