The Ugly and Hopeful Sides of Xenophobia

This picture was taken at the District Six Museum in Cape Town. Thankfully these benches no longer appear in South Africa, but it was not too long ago that Europeans and the rest of us were segregated in this gorgeous country. To put it in perspective, if Sandeep and I had grown up in Cape Town, we would not have been allowed to sit on this bench. The sight of Ava and Kayan (and tiger, since I don’t think he technically counts as European) sitting here felt like a triumph.