“Are You African-American?” (1)

Back in the U.S. race is often the giant elephant in the room that people either try their hardest to ignore or simply dismiss as being no longer relevant. Being here I’ve noticed that South Africa and the U.S. have more in common than one would think when it comes to race relations and racial attitudes. In South Africa, the elephant is the same size, just a different shape and color; and unfortunately, people are still hesitant to talk about it.

Today was actually one of best days I’ve had here in Cape Town. We took the Khayelitsha students on a field trip to the planetarium. It was definitely a lot like herding cats, especially after the sugar from lunch kicked in, but we still had a really great time. All of us in the William & Mary program decided to celebrate this Independence Day with dinner at Addis in Cape, an Ethiopian restaurant Professor Abegaz discovered (rather befitting since Ethiopia is Africa’s oldest independent nation). According to Abegaz, it’s one of the nicest Ethiopian restaurants he’s ever been to. Even though the food was fantastic, for me nothing really compares to the home-cooked Ethiopian dishes made by Mrs. Kifle (shout out to Yodit and the Kifle family).

The topic of this entry comes from a conversation I had today with Justin, one of the people I’ve quickly become friends with here in Cape Town. Justin is a coloured student at UCT studying business. He’s also a SHAWCO volunteer. On our way back from the planetarium, he asked me a pretty unusual question. He wanted to know if I was African-American. Needless to say, I’ve never been asked this question before…