Four forces taking on racism
Taking on racism by building a strong immune system against it
The Department of Justice, Cricket SA and the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation and the Nelson Mandela Foundation all teamed up for anti-racism week 2017. The Anti-Racism Network South Africa (ARNSA) was the birth of these forces together.
On March 17, the ARNSA visited the Saint Barnabas College to have a talk to the learners about fighting racism and in doing so handed out #TakeOnRacism wristbands which are branded in the South African national flag colours.
The assembly was accomplished by a pledge taken by the learners to assist in eradicating racism.
“Racism is not an action, Racism is a belief. The “ism” means a belief. The belief is that the other race is below you, that means that you discriminate against them. Racism deals with sexism, ‘classism’ and xenophobia all of this things are the underpin of racism. The Apartheid system made us raciest. Apartheid took us and put us into boxes. Instead of coming out of the box, we started boxing others” said Sean Moodley, the ARNSA national convener.
According to Moodley, this program is to help build a strong immune system that will fight the virus of racism, he encouraged the youth to take the country out of this virus.
Moodley made an example of how easily it is to still see apartheid everywhere, he said that at a school where there are multi races, if you walk around the schools at break time, you will still find that there will still be small groups of people of the same race together and that this is not focused on us but we have become accustomed to it.
The campaign is to encourage four things namely; to learn about racism, talk about it, have the ability to speak out against it and to have the ability to act out against it.
Pumlani Majakajaka from the Department of Justice quoted the late Nelson Mandela “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion.
People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
Majakajaka explained that the National Action Plan (NAP) is to establish a non-racial and non-sexiest society based on the human rights and freedom.
It is a document that is drawn up by the people of South Africa to fight against racism, xenophobia and related intolerance in the country. “We need to intergrade strategies so that as a country we can cater for all the cultures.”
Dwaine Pretorius and Reeza Hendricks who play for the Proteas and Lions Cricket also took the stage and had a quick talk with the learners about the sporting codes and various cultures and people that one encounters in sports.
Pretorius said that what’s nice about this is that they you learn a lot about other cultures in sports. You start going through the tough times together and that’s when you realize that we, all the same, its just skin colour.
You become like a family and that’s what sports does, sports can unite people and it teaches one to look beyond the skin and actually get to know the person.
After the assembly the learners and teachers went outside to unite in a human chain and to sing the National Anthem.
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