Over the past few weeks, I’ve
been able to really participate in social activism activities. Last Friday, on International Women’s Day, a
group of my fellow Co-educators and I went down to St. George’s mall to ring the
bell to stop violence against women. It
was an interfaith service and march through the town, with the bells of the
church ringing the entire time. It was
really awesome to be part of something like that, a cause that has a newfound
importance to me, and to make my voice heard.
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| JR and Wylie at rally in support of ending violence against women |
Then on this Friday, Ainsley, Wylie, and I went into Khayelitsha to a
rally against hate crimes against the LGBT community, and subsequent police
inaction. At one point during the march,
the men in the march separated and they included me. It was a show of solidarity that as the main
perpetrators of these crimes, we stand up to say enough. Even though the chants were all in Xhosa, it
was empowering to be included in this portion of the march. In class, we have talked about the importance
of being an ally and it felt great to truly be an ally to these two
communities. We had to do an exercise
where we had to give examples of when we were perpetrators, bystanders,
victims, and healers. I had really
struggled to give examples of when I was a healer, but over the past few weeks
it’s been really awesome to be able to put down more examples, and I am sure
that there will be many more examples in the future.
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