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Not all black and white

Started by paulmwatson · 10 months ago

This is going to sound a bit strange, and potentially even racist, to Europeans but I reckon many of my fellow South Africans have noticed it while abroad. Don’t get worked up over the use of “white” and “black” in this post. It is raci ... Continue reading »

4 comments

  • Rebel Prince

    3 years ago

    Not flame-worthy at all. A very interesting perspective, I think.
    reply
  • Jon

    3 years ago

    Hi Paul. Interesting what you write abvout here. I had a similar kind of feeling when moving back from New Zealand to the UK. NZ is supposedly a "multi-cultural" country, although on the South Island it is predominantly a white-majority population. Spend five years living there, and you become very insulated from "multi-" part of the culture. But, arrive back in the UK, stagger throught the interminable corriders of Heathrow Terminal 4, and you are immediately confronted with how truely multi-cultural the UK is. I had to re-check all the seemingly innocuous predjudices that had built up over the five years, like the layer of grim on the hand grip of your favourite (alak, dead) camera...
    reply
  • skin

    3 years ago

    as a person who once lived where you are now and now lives where you were, i find it very interesting. it seems odd to me, here, for very much the opposite reason.

    i've been in cape town for nearly 12 months now and i have NOT YET spoke to a black person who is not mowing the lawn, doing the washing, cleaning the street, or begging for money. i find it odd, very odd. at home, not only would the bus drivers, or the tellers in the supermarkets, be white or black or asian... or whatever, but they are also just people. people you talk to at their work, you freely chit-chat with them, you maybe see them in the same pub at the weekend, they really are just everyday people and typically they deserve and get the same respect as everyone else.

    many things struck me as odd when i moved here, but one that sticks with me are the petrol attendents. not only are petrol attendents in ireland and the uk VERY rare, but the idea of asking one of them to check your tyres, your oil, your water and wash your windscreen would be considered ridiculous. just try that in ireland, haha, the t'ought of it! rightly so, they'd tell you to f'off and check your own bloody tyres! ;)
    reply
  • Eryclejer

    1 year ago

    You don't really need or want that lifestyle, it might hurt y'all slowly more.......Just tell him you
    don't wanna repeat something your not too proud of z7uas.
    reply

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