The 18 July is Nelson Mandela day and is observed internationally. People are encouraged to make a change somewhere by volunteering 67 minutes of their time and expertise.
A rather cynical piece popped up in the day’s wake, Mandela Day: a post-colonial exercise in the commodification of the good black on the Thoughtleader website.
Is cynicism wrong? People who see the glass as half empty (instead of half full) can always congratulate themselves on their “realism”, and how smug they feel when things don’t turn out as others had hoped! But cynicism is so old and doesn’t go anywhere. People like Mandela and Gandhi point to new possibilities in being human; to a different, inclusive picture of what we can become …
Anyone who sees Mandela as just a “good black” doesn’t see him at all! People like Mandela and Gandhi evolve beyond their constituencies, and their subsequent example encourages the human race to go beyond its Whiteness, Blackness, Hinduness, Jewishness etc. If we can’t do that for 67 minutes, what hope is there?
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