Professor William Gumede has warned against racialising issues and said issues need to be tackled for what they are.
Gumede indicated that incidents of government corruption are sometimes often broadly viewed by some white South Africans as a general failure of all blacks, rather than seen in their specific context of a corrupt individual.
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“Corruption has nothing to do with race, but everything to do with an individual who engages in corrupt activities,” said Gumede.
He is an associate professor at the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Governance and was speaking at the Reporting on Race Conference held in Auckland Park.
Gumede delivered his academic lecture where he spoke about the legacy of apartheid when it comes to racism. He highlighted that a lot still needed to be done to fight racism and said there were white and black practices which reinforced racism in society.
The professor indicated that racial solidarity will see people support undemocratic and corrupt practices. “People will hide behind black solidarity for dubious personalities and decisions.”
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He also said many whites reinforce racism by dismissing the legacy and reality of white privilege. The professor also urged the media to move away from what he described as apartheid era stereotyping and encouraged them to portray the diversity of South Africa when reporting.
Gumede said media houses ought to give all races equal dignity. “Are images of dead black bodies freely displayed on front pages while white bodies are given more dignity?”
Another academic lecture was delivered by Professor Karen Turner from the Temple University in the United States of America. Turner said there was a need to include reporting on race in university curriculum as it would equip student journalists to deal with race issues much better when they are in newsrooms. “[University] faculties don’t know how to include race reporting in courses,” Turner highlighted.
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She shared that in her country, there is a lack of quality race reporting because of a lack of diversity in newsrooms. She also added that journalists needed to review their usage of words to avoid emphasising racist stereotypes.
