Engaging with race is an unforgiving affair, however one approaches it, writes Michael Morris. If embracing it can be, and perhaps always is, tainting – as it flirts with the fiction of difference – seeming to disown it, in the sense of pretending it is unaffecting, is surely delusional, as it overlooks the power and […]
Janet Smith spoke to Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State, about how to raise a non-racial child. 1. I don’t agree with this view, that racism is entirely a consequence of economic inequality. In that case, you’d have to explain middle class American racism. It is importantly a function […]
As we approach municipal elections and the likely attendant bad behaviour from the competing parties, measures to combat racism take on new urgency, writes Ryland Fisher. It was an honour to attend the launch on Thursday of the Racism Stops With Me campaign, which is supported by Independent Media and a few partners. It was […]
Janet Smith: Please describe the suburb in which you grew up in terms of racial identities, and how people did or did not find each other across those divides. Ronnie Kasrils: Well, first let us start with another question. What are the causal roots of racism? Racism is a system of domination that came into […]
It’s 2016 and racists, sexists and misogynists are getting schooled as soon as they expose themselves. As they should be. But is the social policing we’re witnessing spreading hate, or pushing people towards worthy dialogue? Crucially, what happens next? Aaisha Dadi Patel and Dana da Silva weigh it up. Calling out “problematic” people on social media is now […]
Racism is no monkey business, but after the racism debacles of January 2016, we could all do with some comic relief. And we tried to find it! We approached a bunch of comedians to talk about race, Mandela’s vision and whether our country could ever move past the race debate. Their answers were not so funny. Goolam Hassen reports. […]
Children might not have the language about race, but they do have the language about what they do not have, says Equal Education’s Tshepo Motsepe. South Africa is now a country that services three types of people. At first, there were two: if you were black, you knew where you were supposed to be. Everyone else […]
Norma Craven explains why she thinks whiteness is seen as the norm and blackness as the “other”.
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 […]
Sarah Emily Duff, University of the Witwatersrand There are many ways for young people to learn about sex. In talks between parents and children, in the sharing of information between peers, in initiation schools and in ceremonies preceding marriage, young people have learned about sex and sexual reproduction. They also learn about how societies define […]