White Knight

It is a privilege to be treated as an individual rather than a category. To be seen. Part of that comes from not having to be standardised to fit into a system (a job, a role, an income). Capital doesn’t care about you. In a good way. Capital compounds just like Privilege. Money makes money. Social Connections make Social Connections. In my 11 years of earning a salary, most of my colleagues were white and English speaking. Most South Africans working outside South Africa are White and English Speaking. But that isn’t how I was seen. I was Trevor. An individual. Yet, behind the majority of my colleagues (and clients) were family and friends that helped. Get the CV to the top of the pile. Skip the pile altogether. Pay for the university. Be a role model. Be a mentor. Josh Waitzkin talks about “Numbers to leave Numbers. Form to leave Form”. He is talking chess and martial arts at an elite level, but what he means is Structure disappears when knowledge is embodied. Racism may no longer be explicit like when we were learning how the horse moves, but it doesn’t disappear just because we start liking each other.

"Numbers to leave Numbers. Form to leave Form."

Josh Waitzkin on embodied knowledge