mhlengi

“I did not benefit from apartheid, therefore why should I be held liable” 


# this is just one heck of a common statement that I hear from a lot of my white friends and I find it unwarranted because it lacks intellectual credibility, empathy, responsiveness and a sense of self awareness – “white privilege” is the damn elephant in the room –

# as a black man I’m always an immediate suspect, thanks to this stereotype caricature that categorizes all black men as the shadowy, criminal that lurks about.

# I find myself in an elevator with a middle aged white woman and she gives me that fake “please don’t rape me” grin.

# And I have to listen to my white friends go on about how they haven’t benefited at all from the world being built on white supremacy…..

# I can’t exercise a freedom with guns and not be questioned about it .

# Even with quotas and B.E.E if you’re a black man you have to prove yourself still ( meaning you have to play along to “white hegemonies” speak with a proper posh white accent and then they’ll generally accept you and deem you ‘civilized’) . 

# 80% of corporate industries in South Africa are occupied by white monopoly capital despite any employment equity policies.

Hypothetically if you were to die and go to heaven just to find that God is black would you be willing to go back to hell cause of your prejudices and preconceived ideas and judgements about the black man ? Or would he still be the same God of love and truthfulness ? 

Moving forward I fully comprehend that we can only truly progress as a black nation once black folk also start taking responsibility for whichever calamitous situation that we find ourselves in – we can’t keep feeling victimized as a black nation and continue living these defeatist, docile ‘blame white people and apartheid’ lives and refuse to assume accountability for our own existence, despite apartheid and imperialism having left some structures …it’s just as basic as that, no other way to phrase it . In a nutshell and in a very politically correct manner this is what I would like my white friends to hear …..”


[For the next part in this series and to hear the thoughts of Hulisani Khorombi, click here]