Racism injustice and history
Author: admin | Category: Politics Today I want to make an appeal to South Africans to stop talking at each other and actually listen to what the other party has to say. I want to talk about racism. South Africans are experts in this field. We categorize box and pigeon hole. We have more racial cla**ifications than any other country in the world.
Under our constitution it is no longer allowed to discriminate based on race except to fix past injustices. This allows for racial cla**ification and we are supposed to have killed apartheid in 1994. I know that I voted for change at the big referendum that never happened if you believe the current attempts to rewrite history.
The change I voted for included removal of the group areas act, removal of racial cla**ification and profiling, allowing all South Africans the rights to the freedoms guaranteed in our constitution. I never expected everything to be perfect because factually the systems created by the people I descend from caused a lot of harm.
Before I continue I want to define racism and dispel a myth. There is a myth doing the rounds that Blacks cannot be racist. It is folly to believe that. Another myth called reverse racism has appeared, There is no such thing. Racism is racism. You cannot be called a racist if you hate Muslims, Christians, Gay people or even stupid people. The reason for this is because all of these groupings of people are of varied races, creeds and belief systems. They are white, black coloured and asian.
Racists dislike people because of their skin colour (race) If you don’t like Arabs, because they are Arabs, you are racist unless you are an Arab. If you don’t like Black people because they are black, you are racist unless you are Black. If you don’t like White people because they are white, you are racist unless you are White. Racism is really that simple.
I never expected South Africans to embrace one another without fear, I really did not. I expected their to be some awkwardness, some hesitation but I fully expected South Africans to unite for the good of our Country and our children. Over the years I have seen many happenings that gave us hope. I saw South Africans partying in the streets hugging one another when the Bokke won the 95 world cup. I saw South Africans join together to make a success of the 2010 world cup. I have seen South Africans drinking together, I have seen them Braaing together, I have seen them shopping together. All of this makes me hopeful.
Then I meet a man who says I will never trust a ___ man because my great grandfather was killed in a concentration camp, or my father worked as a laborer in the mines, or ____ men killed my grandmother. People like that live in the past and perpetuate racism and folly.
I met a man who was driving badly in a parking lot and when I took him to task for it, he said, “Who do you think you are, I am not your garden boy”. That attitude does not create trust, nor does it create opportunities to find common ground. The moment he introduced the element of race into the discussion about bad driving, he allowed me to see his race as idiots.
Facts are that we should never generalise, but that is what humans do and with the history of this country racial stereotyping will never die unless we stop and think about our attitudes. Gareth Cliff wrote a letter recently complaining about service delivery, corruption and other problems with the Government. He was roundly criticized as racist despite there not being one reference to race in his letter. The opposition to his letter proved that they were the very thing they were accusing Gareth of. Racists.
When Mara Louw accused Idols of being racist, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, (There was a good mix of races in the finals) , she proved only one thing. Mara Louw is racist.
When Andile Mngxitama wrote his opinion piece on the Mail and Guardian website he proved only one thing. Andile is racist.
When Sunette Bridges made her stupid comments, she proved one thing Sunette Bridges is racist
No other points can be made. I cannot say all blacks are racist because a taxi driver is racist, or Andile is racist. I cannot say all whites are racist because Eugene and Sunette are racist.
All I can ask is that we South Africans stop and think. Who are we? What are we.
I am a man, I am South African resident, I am an artist, I am a photographer, I am a web designer, I have ethics, morals and standards. These are things I control. These are things that I can change, These are the things I can consider achievements. The rest like being white, being 5′8, being male, being straight, these are not things I have control over thus they are irrelevant.
Being white, black, coloured, asian or arab are not matter of pride, they are accidental. being English speaking, Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, Bapedi are not a matter of pride, they are an accident of birth, Should we be having so much strife over accidents of birth?
Just by the way my children are not guilty of my transgressions, I am not guilty of the transgressions of my parents and grand parents. You are not guilty of your fathers deeds.
Let’s just be South African together. When you are asked about your race make it human. The rest is just bullshit
