Archive Author
Contributing writer, Anti-Racism Daily. Kholiswa Mendes Pepani is a writer and editor from Johannesburg, South Africa, now living in Portland, Maine. Her writing has appeared in Anti-Racism Daily, Amjambo Africa, and Hobart.
Issues written by Kholiswa Mendes Pepani for Anti-Racism Daily, newest first.
6 issues · 2021–2022
Civil Rghts champion Archbishop Tutu's support for truth and reconciliation initiatives helped the people of South Africa begin healing from apartheid.
Muslim women are being harassed, fired from jobs, suspended from schools and denied access to public areas because they wear the hijab.
Hundreds of thousands of people marched in over 650 organized events in support of reproductive rights, accelerated by the Texas abortion ban. Today, Kholiswa shares more about the history of reproductive justice and its role in a more equitable future.
In November 2009, the South African government and U.N. General Assembly declared July 18th Nelson Mandela International Day.
Everyday, millions of minority students suffer in silence, struggling to cope with the formidable hurdles they face on their path to receiving a higher education. Combating direct and indirect racial discrimination is an all-encompassing battle that continually dares people of color to survive. Carrying this weight while balancing a rigorous curriculum can often come at a serious cost to the mental health and well-being of students of color. In addition to this, the pandemic and the rise in white extremist violence and police brutality has added more strain to the life of students of color. This college mental health crisis is only exacerbated by the lack of support students of color receive from their institutions who fail to provide sustained efforts for equity, and the tangible resources needed to thrive (The Steve Fund Crisis Report).
Education is a fundamental human right. But when racial and socioeconomic fences sequester millions of Black and Brown students from the resources and privileges that are required to succeed, who protects their rights? For decades, the racial stratification within the United States’ educational system has been a powerful tool to uphold intergenerational privilege and white supremacy. Standardized testing is used across the nation as a proxy for intellectual merit, even though results always correlated with race and socioeconomic background rather than academic achievement (Teachers College Press).