Black Africans continue to face racial prejudice in Australia By Mandisi Majavu A 51-year-old white Australian woman, Michelle Veronica Jacobsen, who subjected a black African family to a nasty racist attack and threatened them with a crowbar, has been charged with assault, going armed in public as to cause fear, disorderly conduct and conduct likely…
By MANDISI MAJUVA who asks if Black South Africans are expected to talk about colonialism in a manner that doesn’t cause discomfort to Whites It has taken the University of Cape Town (UCT) 15 years to seriously consider the views of its black students concerning the statue of Cecil John Rhodes. Way back in 1999, Melissa…
By MANDISI MAJAVU Sexual Attraction and Online Dating Last month Christian Rudder, co-founder of OkCupid, an online dating website, released statistical data collected over a five-year period about how people who subscribe to the website “weigh race in deciding attraction.” The data doesn’t reveal any new insights into the issue, which people of colour are…
By MANDISI MAJAVU Early this month, Serena Williams wrote an article for TIME magazine announcing that she has decided to end her 14-year boycott of the Indian Wells tennis tournament. The last time she played at the tournament in 2001, she was subjected to racial abuse. She recounts the whole incident in chapter four of her autobiography, My life:…
The human cost of intolerance towards African immigrants and refugees is too high By MANDISI MAJAVU Three months after the South African government announced that it was planning to introduce a controversial stringent application process for refugees seeking asylum in the country, foreign-owned shops are being looted in Soweto and foreign nationals are being subjected…
They Don’t Teach It In Law School By MANDISI MAJAVU Notwithstanding the violent and aggressive behaviour he exhibited in his personal life, the product of a historically heavily subsidised racial group in South Africa, the life of Oscar Pistorius demonstrates how white privilege protected his masculinity from being constructed as uncivil, criminal, threatening and dangerous. In…
