Saturday, July 24, 2010

Tuesday, July 20, 2010 11:48 PM Cape Town Time- My Dorm (LBG)

Today was a pretty homey day. Had orientation stuff. It focused a lot on the academics. I had to do a bunch of running around to get some questions answered and also figure out what I'm taking. I'm thinking of changing a lot of stuff around but we'll see. I'd like to take some more English courses but the system is weird. All will be resolved soon.


Today I saw a guy with a UCT Hip-Hop Club T-shirt. I want one. I will join this club to get one. I will also fight in a cage match for one. They are that cool.

My entries are getting progressively more boring and less introspective but I think its because I'm beginning to feel more at home, which is a good thing. It would be troubling if I kept writing 500 word ruminations on my place in the world after every day. That might be a cause for concern.

The mountain that the school is on is so beautiful though. From the steps of Upper Campus you can pretty much see all of Cape Town. It's crazy.


Had some good conversations with my friend Latoya today though about the ethics and responsibilities of Wal-Mart and the fallacy of color-blindness. They were both thought provoking and dope but I won't give you the whole rundown. Short thought on Wal-Mart is that they should e held to a higher standard when it comes to providing for their workers considering their size and success. We tax people who make more money more. Why not the same with folks like these big box companies? Also being able to be colorblind is a privilege. People who live in the segments of the world that are disadvantaged because of the intersections of race and class can't ignore that fact (or they do simply because they don't know any better). Colorblindness is one of the faux-liberal ploys that people have introduced to make white people and other powerful people feel less bad about their power and the ugly things that create some of it. One thing I admire about South Africans is their willingness to talk about race. Americans are afraid of it and it is very counterproductive to the work of restructuring an unfair society when you don't want to talk about one of the key reasons it is unfair. Look at me, getting all deep again. lol. Alright, that's good for now. Talk again soon.


"to black kids wishin they white kids, when they close they eyelids like, "I bet they neighborhood ain't like this." white kids wishin they black kids, and wanna talk like rappers, it's all backwards it's identity crisis."

-talib kweli


peace,

nate

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