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CRISP said 04/18, 04:21 PM
I sometimes wonder as to the reasons our white brothers and sisters do things. I was in South Africa sometime last year. This journalist dude I was with (white of coz) offered to take me to Soweto. OK, I agreed. he said he like it there and believed that all Whites have to experiance the life in Soweto.

He obviously speaks as someone who goes there as a tourist and dont have to spend the nite there. He was clearly looking around his sholder every second fearing that some local criminal will attack us, I must say, I also felt a bit of a chill but hey, I am not a local, I just was following a supposedly knowledgeable local dude about the area.

There are informal settlements all over Soweto and a lot of people are jobless and poor. South African whites dont often go to the townships unless they are taking a foreign visitor for a tour. He gave a few coins to a woman who was actually selling fruit on the street as his way of showing compassion. For Christ sake, the woman was selling something making money for her self. She did not need the hand out from a guilty white boy.

I think that a lot of Whites just dont know what to do to show their disapproval of the past.

CRISP said 04/19, 05:59 AM
The issue I'm raising here is that White dudes, especially of this generation do not know what to do when they are faced with the damage caused by the slave trade, apartheid and economic exploitation of the past. He does not need to do anything about it because like the body, when the world is wounded, the world heals itself.

The woman (black) took the money becaused its easy money. But Africans are said to be very proud people and would rather work hard for their accomplishments and not be patronised. I agree with philosophy and the white guy just didn't get it.

I also think that his deed, though meant to be kind, its selft fulfilling. It makes him feel good.

I also know a lot of people who contribute towards the healing fo the world. They are involved in initiatives that are long term solutions. They do community building work, skills development and they do it as a calling not because they feel they carry the responsibility to correct their great great grandparents did.

My point Dude is that Whites need to stop insulting people by their sorry gestures. Its OK to do something about human suffering,but it must come from the heart and be long term solution

CRISP said 04/20, 11:25 AM
Come down Dude. Lets stick to facts of the debate and not get carried away. You ask again as to what is my point. Let me quote from my previous submission, "The issue I'm raising here is that White dudes, especially of this generation do not know what to do when they are faced with the damage caused by the slave trade, apartheid and economic exploitation of the past". That is my point.

I will not respond to your point 1 as my response will not change the engraved conclusion in your mind.
2. When I talk about proud Black people, I am refering to a society, a race, across the world. So if you minimise this issue to a case study you are mising the point. A lot of poeple around the world who are faced with sickness and death take the sorry gestures of the guilty not because they have lost the sense of their pride but because the gestrure solves (in the short term) their problems.

3/4. You are being hypethetical about the selffulfilling issue. You dont know if his deed did not make him feel good. I have better reason to believe he did because I was there in person.

About your closing statement: you assume I'm White. thats like shooting in the darkness.