Another title for this entry might've been 'What gives?' But I was in a mood for some cheesy wordplay....
http://mg.co.za/article/2011-09-02-why-my-opinions-on-whiteness-touched-a-nerve
http://mg.co.za/article/2011-07-01-confronting-whiteness
Can I ask that we all take a moment to breathe? In light of the intense debate (I might go so far as to say 'war'!) raging around these articles, I am struggling to comprehend all this frustration...?
What Vice seems to be suggesting is some self-reflection. Although I am not religious myself, my grandfather is a Roman Catholic, and says of his belief that if it is not a questioning and at times challenging one, it is not an alive faith. I feel the same about living here, about filling in 'South African' on the dotted line next to 'Nationality' and 'Caucasian' next to 'Race'. It is interesting that in this country, the tentative and most humbled position should be the most bold, and I applaud Vice for her courage. I started this blog in a (perhaps in vain) attempt to give voice to my own 'uncomfortable' position while trying to stake a hesitant claim to love this country...Probably largely unsuccessfully, but I suppose 'success' was not really the point... I have struggled since (rather uncourageously) to muster up anything close to the boldness Vice so refreshingly 're-inflects' for white South Africans.
To Eusebius McKaiser, Samantha Vice and Sally Matthews (in http://mg.co.za/article/2011-09-12-inherited-or-earned-advantage), I raise my glass and count them as our lucky stars in the South African constellation!
