No more pretending: We need to talk about racism

Who’s responsible for the racism?

Awful question. I know… yet it’s one that we struggle to tackle.

All this talk of being inclusive and accommodating; it’s not new. It may be shocking to believe but as late as the late 2000s, there was a solid push to racially desegregate hostels at the University of the Free State. I remember the time. It was wild. The adaptation wasn’t just about opening the doors though. It was changing the mechanics within.

No longer would the passive excuse of “if they don’t want to come, we can’t force them” be an excuse of validity. It had become the ritualistic response every time integration was punted. Then there came a time when the ritual was met with the question, “what have you done to attract them?”

Ludicrous. You’re forcing us to integrate with these “others” and now we have to go out of our way to change ourselves so that we can inspire the integration we never wanted? This wasn’t one sided by the way. It was from all courts!

I had largely forgotten that time of my life until the subject of Israel-Palestine surfaced prominently in the media. At the same time, I was advising on a heart-warming, yet difficult documentary of Ella Blumenthal; a soon to be 100-year-old holocaust survivor. 

The internal conflict knocked me out. On the one hand, I’m concerning myself with all this awful oppression and anti-Semitism. All the while, I’m baring witness to the resultant state of that oppression waging attacks on other territories.

For the sake of clarity, I’m not trying to venture a perspective of which side is right. That matter is too complex for a single piece. What does challenge me is seeing casualties on both sides in times of loss and the celebration of deaths in times of victory.

It’s hardly possible for me to pick a side, let alone feel good about doing it when actions are so blunt and peppered with complexities of historical stuff ups.

Fresh with this heavy outlook on international events, South Africa hit us with the past week’s challenge.

Wow! It was depressing to be on social media and watch the flames being stoked.

It took me back to years ago when I met somebody dropping a k-bomb, only to find that their entire family was murdered by black people. They’re wrong, yes, but there’s still little room to argue when one’s emotions have been so charged and perceptions have been reinforced. Similarly the Indian-black conflicts in KZN seem to be playing into existing stereotypes. The list of examples is pretty endless.

The issue with our racial stereotypes is that there’s little conscious effort to dispel them. Why would there be? We have never taken the time to consider them as a nation, save for that one time Joburger was big on Facebook in 2016 and turned it into a gag.

Without considering them, our actions often can and do reinforce emotional stereotypes. Considering where we are, those stereotypes can breed a significant amount of hate. Moreover, when allowed to fester, they are incredibly disempowering.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve been shut down in debate because I am the “son of Jan Van Riebeeck”. Being of Lebanese decent, I don’t know how that came to be, but it doesn’t matter how outlandish the statement.

Once it’s made, the audience is won over and I’ve immediately lost legitimacy in their eyes. The same goes for the outraged dude shouting at a black beggar at a robot to go ask the ANC for their money.

Perhaps we should stop asking “what’s wrong and what’s right?” because it hasn’t seemed to be working. Perhaps the new question should be: “What’s right and effective?”

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I may not be the son of Jan van Riebeeck but over years, the narrative has associated my skin tone to that association. Hell, maybe being the son of Van Riebeeck isn’t even a bad thing. I dunno. I wasn’t there. What I do know is that every time I flex some form of what has come to be known as privilege, I feed that monster that stokes the hatred.

What can be done though? Should I not drive my Miata with the top down? Should I not arrive home with Woolworths food and unpack it in front of my domestic? Should the dude begging for money don an anti-ANC shirt?

Frankly, I’m not absolutely certain, but what I do know is that if we start being more conscious of it, we can start to plan how to deal with it.

Perhaps it’s unfair to put blame of racism on the side of the victims. It probably is. This isn’t a matter of blame though. It’s a matter of getting through it and if there’s something one can do to alleviate racism but they don’t do it, would it be wrong to assign some responsibility?

I understand the looting of shops. I understand the armed community watches. I understand the policy apathy. What I don’t understand is why nobody has taken a step back from the hatred and questioned how all this affects our views of one another and how those views can be challenged instead of reinforced.

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