Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Creative Inspirations from the course!



Hi. As one of the creative inspirations from the course, and inspired by the movie Crash, one of the students has presented the following poem... Here, I am sharing it with the rest of you! My own inspirations are attached here too... in the form of paintings...The first one is called 's o c i e t y', and is a beaded canvas (i used square plastic beads and chains, and the play of colour and light is of particular interest to me).. and the second one is an oil on canvas, titled 'MultiCULTuralism'.


WHY RACISM?

What is a difference
Something unique and distinct
New and never experienced
opposing what you are used to

A difference is what we strive for
In day to day living
We sweat to bring a difference
A difference in a form of bread for survival

We even long for that special someone
Whom we wish to devot our lives to
To make our lives different
Pleasant and sharable with the other

Perhaps after vows are done
We want to celebrate in a different way
In a different special place
To make it a rememberable one

Race is the difference
A distinction according to colour
Skin colour,eye colour
And perhaps the degree of the streaghtness of the hair


There are two types of dfifference good and bad
Who created diffference
Perhaps God for if it was men
It would imply that man created man

Who decides which difference is good or whichj is bad
Perhaps man satisfying his attitude and beliefs
Why racial prejudice
Historically white to black
post-election black to white or vice verca

Why not see race a a good difference
A difference that is embedded within cultural diversity
And thus race could be adventurous
We unlock the uniqueness and distinctiveness
across racial bounderies

Who created colour and certain connotations related to each
Red for love,pink for feminity
Altimately white for brightness and civilisation
Black for backwardness and damness
As defined by the Western Oxford dictionary

Human beings are not animals or things to be identified by colour
Neither are they objects around our social world
What is being refered to as white is not really white
But perhaps pinkish
What is labelled black may be brownish

Who catergorised human to racial groups
Why not perhaps according weight,or hieght
Why colour when physical features and blood is the same colour
There is but one race,the human race!!!

written by :Nokulunga Khanyisile Mkhize
206506219

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey Nokulunga this a great poem and it highlights how the huamn race should actually see each other beyond colour because as individual alone we are different in all means and we strive for uniqueness so why make colour an issue. We should celebrate our difference and learn from each and grow. We need more people like you that can foster change and set free the minds that are in chains so the that the same stigmas surrounding colous wont be born agian by the next generation as society has a way reproducing the same negative imbalances that already exist. Beautiful poem full of life.
T Miya 206513729

Shafinaaz Hassim said...

Hey T Miya..

Glad you liked the poem! Its amazing how we inspire creativity from the things that we see and experience. But more importantly, that inspiration should allow us to extend our social awareness/consciousness to making a difference; bringing about some kind of change in at least our immediate social sphere.

Anonymous said...

Hi

This is brilliant.Noku,you should write a song out of this.

Shafinaaz Hassim said...

Thats an interesting thought!
Lyrics!!! Well, now I am reminded of when I got to campus yesterday, and a group of people were 'rapping' just outside mtb.. imagine if we could use these inspired words as lyrics?!

Shafinaaz Hassim said...

Apologies: I was inpspired to paint a canvas (I call it multi-culturalism); and i beaded another canvas called 'society in full colour' with plastic beads.. but was unable to upload to the blog. Will do so at a later stage.

Rgrds
S

Anonymous said...

the poem was really good and insightful.it brings up the many issues of race that todays societies are facing.it is true that we as individuals are all so different and unique, no matter what our race.race does not define the type of person you are or become, it is just a minor concept that should not affect the way we relate to one another.as said in the poem, we are all apart of the same race, which is the human race.
206519382

Anonymous said...

helllo

that is a great poem. think it would be great to use them as lyrics.
so i was thinking... why are 'blacks' refered to in the negativelight and why 'whites' in a positive light.

this is what i came up with...
during the colonial times blacks were the original south african inhabitants. then came along the 'british' who thought that they can extract anything and everything form these 'disadvantaged' people. and i thnik that is how it all started of- where whites looked down upon blacks and used them for cheap labour. they were then stigmatized and believed to be NOT equivalent to whites. whites thought that they were SUPERIOR because they came by ship and were more technologically advanced then blacks were. from here the stigma stayed and that is why were are plagued by racism and discrimination.


It is true that we are all equals at the end of the day and that we are all made up of the same biological material . i believe that God does not see colour, we are all one to Him.
therefore i belive that being proud of who you are is all that matters. eveything else is just a mind mset and we as 'modern' south africans should strive to change that'unacceptable' mindset and get rid of that hated stigma.
it is only then that we can all fully appreciate life and this beautiful world that God has put us on.
once one become pure on the inside ... eveything else falls into place

Reesha Kara
206506958

Keshni said...

that was an awesome poem. a real inspiration for us all

Anonymous said...

an excellent poem. a true inspiration

Keshni said...

it is an awesome poem. a true inspiration!!!!!!