Student Question

Here is a question posed by Aayesha: After studying both Apartheid in South Africa and the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S., we can notice striking similiarities. However, after analysing the outcomes, there are noticable differences. We notice that the South African society and people have resolved the issue more effectively than the Americans, who find the racial issue an 'uncomfortable' one to confront and talk about. Why is it that these two countries have dealt with similiar situations in such different ways?

Please reply to Aayesha's question and feel free to pose your own questions.

"Blackonomics at Harvard"

"So here is Fryer's final anomaly: he is a man who revels in his blackness and yet also says he believes, as DuBois believed, that black underachievement cannot entirely be laid at the feet of discrimination. Fryer has a huge appetite for advocacy but a far larger appetite for science, and as a scientist he won't exclude any possibilities, including black behaviors, from the menu of factors that contribute to the black condition. His school-incentive project in New York would call upon this entire menu: it seeks to provide an empirical means to measure the theoretical effect of ''acting white''; it engages the economist's belief in the power of incentives to change an environment; and it allows for the overlooked abilities of any given child to flourish. The project might do the most good for the kind of child Fryer himself once was: a kid who belongs to the Talented Tenth but just doesn't know it yet.

The very issue of black-white inequality has, in recent years, been practically driven from public view. But according to the data that Fryer lives with, the inequality itself hasn't gone away. There have been countless distractions -- wars, economic gyrations, political turmoil -- and, perhaps just as significantly, fatigue. The proven voices and standard ideologies have lost much of their power. So there is an opportunity, and probably a need, for a new set of voices, and Roland Fryer, though he would never say it aloud, wants desperately for his to be among them."

A fascinating article about the most prominent economist at the moment who is working on race and its issues. Link

Thank you Jesse

Jesse, once again thank you for creating the blog. I look forward to the discussion of our group!
Kelly Brisbois

Freedom Day

I've just realised that this is an auspicious day to have created this blog. It's Freedom Day - South Africa's national holiday, recognising our first National Democratic Elections on the 27th of April, 1994. This was the day that Nelson Mandela was elected president, the National Party was removed from power and the final nail was put in the coffin of the Afrikaner State.

This was the day that millions of people stood for more than eight hours in a queue to vote for the first time. When many - both black and white - wept for the hitherto-unknown privilege of voting in a truly democratic election where all groups were represented and allowed to contribute.

This day marked the end of one of the most ambitious social experiments ever devised - easily comparable to the Holocaust or slavery in the States.

What better day to create a blog about race relations in South Africa and the United States?

Welcome

Welcome to the Journeys of Reconciliation blog. Kelly asked me to create this to formalise the debate and conversation around the Journeys of Reconciliation project, and to provide a forum for it.

I've sent invitations to each of the people involved in the project, to become an author of the blog. Hopefully this will allow us to throw ourselves into this blog the way many of us have thrown ourselve into Facebook.*

The only request I have is that everyone uses the "labels" field when posting. That will allow us to sort the posts by content and easily find posts on a specific topic or issue.

Happy Blogging!

*I will be maintaining admin privileges only so as to censor Jasmine when she attempts to suggest that Myspace is superior to Facebook.