Welcome to the “Race” Blog
Welcome to my blog. The express purpose of this blog (and that is why it is located within the book.co.za network) is to facilitate discussion around my book, Race, which was launched at the Cape Town Book Fair on Sunday 17 June.
Despite the fact that it was a Sunday afternoon and Father’s Day, we had a capacity crowd at the launch at Marimba’s Restaurant. This again showed to me the interest that exists in the topic of race in South Africa. No matter how much we try to run away from it, race is something that will continue to torment us and we have to talk about it.
I saw a similar response when I spoke at Ohio University in April. I had close to 300 people at my presentation on race.
My book, Race, is based on a series of interviews with some prominent and some not-so-prominent South Africans. Among the prominent South Africans are Minister of Education Naledi Pandor, Orania founder Carel Boshoff, traditional leader Phatekile Holomisa, former South African ambassador to Ireland Melanie Verwoerd and human rights activist Rhoda Kadalie.
While the people above might have among the highest profiles of my interviewees, the other people I interviewed are as interesting, if not even more so.
Some of the topics I deal with include: “Is there such a things as a South African identity?”; “What is racism?”; “Is there still a need for exclusively black (or white) organisations?”; “Is it racist to criticise a black government?”; “Racism in the Media”; and so forth. The book is published by Jacana Media, and is available in stores now.
I wrote Race not to shock people but because I have a genuine belief that, if we do not tackle the race issue properly in South Africa, we could come to regret it.
So, on this blog, I want to encourage readers to engage me and each other on the issues of race and racism in post-apartheid South Africa. Only by talking about this very important issue will we be able to start dealing with it.
I am looking forward to some interesting interactions.
