General Update

Although I am usually just writing to myself and my mom (hi mom!) I have been feeling a responsibility lately to post a new blog. If there is the slightest change that someone out there in cyber space enjoys my rants and stories, this is for you.

More than anything this will be an update.

It's funny how a year in a completely foreign place has changed me, or just allowed me to grow in a new direction. I feel older and more understanding towards a country, or I could even say a continent that I would never have understood if I hadn't moved here. I feel so very fortunate to have the background I do to stay strong in a place where judgement and preconceptions rule over people. While I do find it hard to trust your average stranger here, I haven't lost that love for the world and the people in it and I just hope and pray everyday that that won't fade or go away.

Over a year ago there was an awful blogger that read my posts and constantly told me that my mind would change after a few months of living in Johannesburg. He said that I would realize there is in fact a difference in race and that being born one colour can mean that you are naturally better or worse at this or that you are more supieror or inferior to another race. After a year in South Africa I can understand why he would think this way, because i've met many people that share his ideas, and I think finally after a year of being angry with these people I have tried and allowed myself to understand them. Thankfully my boyfriend and I do not and will never share these ideas, but he has taught me to just listen. I have, and the more I do the more I thank my lucky stars that I grew up in Canada, or even more, in the home that I did where colour and race was never even a conversation peice. People were what they were, I saw and learned that there were no differences or traits in those that looked different from me. They were just another kid in my class or another neighbour that could cook really good exotic food. Never once did I think differently of these people as my parents and my surroundings never taught me that I needed to. Growing older, the race jokes started to come out and I started to learn about this thing called "racism". It wasn't really until University and travelling where my eyes started to open to the outside world and I began to understand that some people are really angry with other people just because of the way they look and act. Then I met my boyfriend, fell in love and moved to South Africa where I was so horrified to hear this race slang that was all around me. I couldn't believe that I was in a place where race was the main topic. After a year of living here, I have thrown myself in head first, trying to fit in and understand why people think the way they do. My conclusion for South Africa thus far is this.

Being the baby democracy that it is, and going through something like apartheid, these ideas and judgements people hold about the English, Afrikaans, or Zulus (not to mentions all the other cultures that exist in this country) have been built into their heads since birth. Only in the last 10 plus years since races have been forced to work side by side and learn one another are things starting to change. I dont think my generation that is South African will change their views anytime soon, but their childrens views will certainly be different, as well as their childrens children and so on. My friend asked me, "when do you think racism will truly end", I said "only when we all look the same". And I believe that, if it's not South Africa it's Spain, if it's not Spain it's the US, if its not the US than its Australia, if its not Australia then it's Canada. When you have a country with a population that is indigenous to the country and another population that come from those that colonized the country there are problems. There is also the evergrowing situation of the immigration influx, and all the problems that are arising from that. It is all around, and South Africa is a prime example. When will it actually stop? Not in my lifetime, probably not in my kids. It's really just a vicious, sad circle and people don't realize that by saying that slang to be funny or by passing that comment really just keeps the circle going around and around.

So what is the answer? What more can I say? I'm just living my life here in Johannesburg, learning and hoping that by loving and understanding maybe the attitude will rub off on others, maybe just maybe if they listen to me like I listen to them we can learn from one another and help the world get better a little faster.

Proud to be.....?

It's a regular Saturday morning, I just finish my breakfast and sit down at the computer with my coffee to do the routine check on my emails. A girl that I have recently befriended loves to send forwards to everyone, not being a "forward person" I usually delete them and carry on. I was suprised when I saw the title "Fw:Proud to be white" sitting in MY inbox this lovely Saturday morning. This girl and I have had close arguments about our differing views, she is a jaded South African while I tend to take the "peace on earth, liberal Canadian view". I decide to take a look, knowing well that this little "forward" could ruin my peaceful Saturday morning and, as I expected, it did its job. I didn't know just how mad this peice of "literature" made me until the tears started streaming down my face. I was frustrated that a so-called friend could have the audacity to send me this and I was upset that so many people in this country and around the world use tools like this to empower their ignorance and complete naiivity to history. Not wanting to cause waves, I have decided to take my anger out on my blog. Maybe it would be easier if I copied and pasted the email:

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"WHITE" Pride"
This is great. I have been wondering about why Whites are racists, and no other race is.....
Proud to be White

Michael Richards makes his point.....................Michael Richards better known as Kramer from20TVs Seinfeld does make a good point.

This was his defense speech in court after making racial comments in his comedy act.. He makes some very interesting points...

Someone finally said it... How many are actually paying attention to this? There are African Americans, Mexican Americans, AsianAmericans, Arab Americans, etc.
And then there are just Americans. You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction. You call me 'White boy,' 'Cracker,' 'Honkey,' 'Whitey,' 'Caveman'... and that's OK.

But when I call you, Nigger, Kike, Towel head, Sand-nigger, Camel Jockey, Beaner, Gook, or Chink .. You call me a racist.

You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you... so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?

You have the United Negro College Fund. You have Martin Luther King Day.

You have Black History Month. You have Cesar Chavez Day.

You have Yom Hashoah. You20have Ma'uled Al-Nabi..

You have the NAACP. You have BET... If we had WET (White Entertainment Television), we'd be racists. If we had a White Pride Day, you would call us racists.

If we had White History Month, we'd be racists.

If we had any organization for only whites to 'advance' OUR, lives we'd be racists.

We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of Commerce, and then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce. Wonder who pays for that ??

A white woman could not be in the Miss Black American pageant but any color can be in the Miss America pageant.

If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships ...You know we'd be racists.
There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the US . Yet if there were 'White colleges' That would be a racist college.

In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights. If we marched for our race and rights, you would call us racists.

You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you're not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our white pride, you call us racists.

You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him a racist.

I am proud.... But you call me a racist.

Why is it that only whites can be racists??

There is nothing improper about this e-mail. Let's see which of you are proud enough to send it on. I sadly don't think many will. That's why we have lost most of OUR RIGHTS in this country. We won't stand up for ourselves!

BE PROUD TO BE WHITE!

It's not a crime yet ... but getting very close!
It is estimated that only 5% of those reaching this point in this e-mail will pass it on.
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First of all, it terrifies me to know that this kind of literature is circulating around the internet and empowering people who don't know better then to take a step towards the re-emergence of neo-natzism and white supremecy. Sadly they are making a scary come back around the world. As globalization takes its course and various races move countries looking for a better life racism against all types of people is showing its evil face again, have we not learnt?

In a scary way you see how these people have come to this conclusion, yes it would seem to the small minded strange that there are Black history months and Martin Luther King days etc. and there is still nothing for the "whites" but they are clearly forgetting recent history. The emancipation of blacks in the U.S. only came to an end in the mid 60's. Apartheid in South Africa only came to an end in......1994!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In order to overcome the tough obstacles of reintegration into society and racist slang towards themselves they needed strong leaders to empower them and make them feel as though, yes they are equal. Martin Luther King did that, black Universitys have given them a feeling of self worth through burserys and scholerships. What was Martin Luthers main message? It wasn't to be proud to be black it was that bodies only exist as homes and transport systems for brains, and what matters is not the colour of your skin, but the content of your character! He wasn't saying be proud to be black, he was saying, let your character shine, because colour is NOT the issue. Cocasions have to live with the fact that chances are, our ancestors were the colonisers, the ones that made indigenous all over the world feel like they were worthless savages, that we were the superior race. No, it's not my fault now that my ancestors did this, but yes, there has to be some form of reconcilliation, someone has to say sorry and our generation has to deal with mistakes made in the past. Who do you think invented race? The colonisers! It just so happens that during the days of colonialism it was expedient to classify people into groups based on the colour of their skin - and thus the unfortunate group identifier, 'race', was born.

It's the bitterness in this email that isn't solving anything, it's taking the same issue and carrying it forward. Suck it up and move on, we need to realize the terrible misfortunes that racist attitudes have caused in the past and learn from that history. We need to work together and realize that colour is only skin deep. Emails like this do make me cry because after all that has been said and done, especially here in South Africa post Apartheid it is still a white-black issue. As long as emails like this are circulating, nothing is going to happen, the world is going to get worse. Terrorism will continue to rise and race crimes will thrive. So today I am crying, I am crying because this world that I put so much faith in continues to let me down as do my new South African friends. They often say to me: "Katie, you don't just get racism in South Africa, you get it all over the world." I know you do, but stop making out that just because they do it too, it makes it okay for you. Racism starts with small things, don't forget that. In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently...

"Racism isn't born, folks, it's taught. I have a two-year-old son. You know what he hates? Naps!" - Denis Leary

"I look at an ant and I see myself; a native South African, endowed by nature with a strength much greater than my size so I might cope with the weight of a racism that crushes my spirit." - Miriam Makeba

"Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason." - Abraham J. Heschel