A Black and White Relationship.

Some writer advised me to write everyday about things that I can write about every day. So I’m going to write a post about what happened yesterday. Of course I’m going to use similes and metaphors, with that said I hope you enjoy.

I woke up in the morning. I took a shower. I went to work. I did a bit of work. I had some breakfast. I carried on working while I was listening to music. Because of my contract I can’t tell you what I did exactly, but it was work.

My girlfriend wanted me to join he for drinks at some restaurant in observatory, but alas I couldn’t make, I was working until 7:15pm. When I eventually went home, we started talking about race, I don’t really remember how we got there but we were in it like a toothbrush in a dirty mouth. The conversation got heated but she tapped out because her English is limited.

I flipped open the laptop and we started watching the big debate, and boy let me tell you it was a BIG debate in the staunchest sense of the word.

But lets backtrack a little bit; we need some information concerning the reason why I flipped open the laptop. This is the reason; I said to my German girlfriend: ‘white people in this country will be killed because they choose to ignore our (black people) suffering and only care about themselves. Yes this country has a lot of problems but there is this undying tension in the air between the race groups of this country, and if we don’t resolve this, there will be war.’

At first she thought I was being racist but then we flipped open the laptop and she saw for herself how some white people in this country really don’t care about reconciliation and moving forward as a true rainbow nation. 

On the show there was a clip of Desmond tutu saying, that white people are lucky they were not killed for their past transgressions, black people still wake up today from a shack and they go and work for white people in the city, and they are still treated like secondary citizens. One of the members (white) said why doesn’t anybody acknowledge that those comments said by Tutu were racists. The crowd’s response was unanimous like the votes for Sony Bill Williams fight against the White Buffalo, the crowd said, “Because it’s true!” 

One thing that is also true. For once in our lives we were all honest, people were angry and the truth was revealed (or a part of it). If we continue to talk like this and resolve the problems at hand we will reconcile and truly live in a rainbow nation. Until then, in the words of Lebo Mashile, “When the lights are off everybody is …cked”.

At the end of the debate my girlfriend was silent.

The purpose of this was not meant to make her feel bad, or for me to feel as though I have some power. I wanted her to see what it’s like to be a black South African living in a country were your ancestor suffered for over three hundred years and the people that benefited from that suffering showed not that they care or at least they want to make emends, they still benefit while the rest still suffers.

  

The thoughts from the other side

What better way to start this post by saying ‘I’m in!’ I’ve finally done the impossible, I've stayed out of jail, got an education and finally got a job. I’ve reached for the stars and I’m slowly but surely morphing into one. I’m on the other side Y'all!

Through vigorous training and self-discipline I’ve worked hard and I’ve become a junior copywriter (not that glorious). These are my humble beginnings into advertising, and hopefully in the future I'll be someone big and awesome.

The other day one of the senior writers started talking about the new Bells ads. She mentioned how inspiring and tear jerking it was. We agreed and we thought King James did a great job.

When she asked the other creative director, he said he felt dirty after seeing the ad, he said it’s a beautifully crafted ad but the message was not spot on. ‘If kids saw this ad they would think learning to read is good, as long as I get a whiskey after I’ve done my work’.

Of course this is one man’s opinion, but what got me thinking was that we help form societies norms (not that I didn’t know of this before), we help shape society and we dictate what is right and what is cool. We as the advertising industry form thoughts, beliefs and some of us, base our values in accordance to what we see on TV.

I think what my creative director was saying is that, we can’t put anything and everything on TV just for the sake of making money. We have to be careful with our advertising, even when we aim to inspire we must be careful as to what we say on TV, radio or general print ads.

Which is why I wanted to get into advertising. I want to change the way society sees itself, my advertising goals is not based on getting awards but encouraging people to value themselves, to help rehabilitate our country from what we went through.

I particularly want to inspire motivate the youth to be proactive, and just like how we were once brain washed by the government into thinking black people are just slaves, I want to use propaganda to change the way black people see themselves.

All i'm asking is that you give me this opportunity to try. let me see how far I can go and what I can do.

This is how some people think from the other side of the TV screen, but of course some of us think differently. I’m still learning though.