I just read an interesting post titled 'How I Was Shut Up', at a blog by a young South African man, Hugo Canham, on how disabled he feels when dealing with white women on an everyday level. It's a very personal and insightful piece.
Reading it, I came away thinking how wars have been fought over white women that have made the pages of the particular histories that we're taught. How even special status is given to white women in images of many of our religious myths. The status of white women is often heralded even in a contemporary media that tells us to bow down, even to the point of emulating their likeness as a model for other women to achieve and to the point of seeking access to them for some men, because there is 'none other'. I think that plays a role in this narrative as well.
But what was most engaging in reading this wonderful piece was that I was granted access to a slice of life in a society that has not too long ago emerged from heavy racial oppression, and this made the article even more insightful.
http://hugokacanham.wordpress.com/2013/07/28/how-i-was-shut-up/
Reading it, I came away thinking how wars have been fought over white women that have made the pages of the particular histories that we're taught. How even special status is given to white women in images of many of our religious myths. The status of white women is often heralded even in a contemporary media that tells us to bow down, even to the point of emulating their likeness as a model for other women to achieve and to the point of seeking access to them for some men, because there is 'none other'. I think that plays a role in this narrative as well.
But what was most engaging in reading this wonderful piece was that I was granted access to a slice of life in a society that has not too long ago emerged from heavy racial oppression, and this made the article even more insightful.
http://hugokacanham.wordpress.com/2013/07/28/how-i-was-shut-up/
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