So this past week a picture appeared on my Twitterer of a white girl with a statement written on a board that made me cringe:
Suddenly more and more of these pictures were popping up all over Social Media and turns out there was an #IAmStellenbosch group inviting students at the University to write statements about themselves which challenge the stereotype of a typical Stellenbosch student and highlight the differences and individualities of each student.
Their vision statement reads: To create an awareness of the thousands of individual identities that are housed in this university and bring them together into a single identity that is Stellenbosch University.
To those who have been keeping some kind of eye on recent Stellenbosch events, this seems to be a response to the Open Stellenbosch movement, much of which was capture in the video ‘Luister’ that was put together by Contraband Cape Town in collaboration with Open Stellenbosch which you can see over here linked to an article by Layla Leiman in which she writes, ‘The documentary shares the testimony of the lived experiences of black students at Stellenbosch University and the culture of racism, discrimination, exclusion and violence that continues at Stellenbosch University 21 years after democracy.’
What is quite interesting to me, reading the vision and mission statement of #IAmStellenbosch [which you can find in their Facebook group] is that line one of their mission is: To create a platform of communication in which students listen to each other this not being through dialogue but discourse.
Whereas their poster campaign seems to be a knee-jerk reaction doing quite the opposite.
And it becomes quickly clear from reading some of the response comments to #IAmStellenbosch that there is some deep listening that needs to happen:
THIS IS NOT JUST A SOUTH AFRICAN PROBLEM
During our time in Americaland, i became very aware that the story of people of colour over there mirrors that of those living in South Africa in so many ways. Even though the chief narrative is quite different for a number of reasons, many of the same themes and similar experiences and mindsets seem to pervade and so i believe there is a lot to be learned from studying both.
Earlier this year #BlackOutDay started trending on the Twitterer as a means for black people to celebrate black beauty and fight against the kind of negative images black people were used to seeing in the media:
You Tube personality Franchesca Ramsey told ABC News:
“Unfortunately, in most popular media talking about black people and our bodies, it’s mostly of us breaking the law, being killed or mistreated,” Ramsey added. “So it’s nice to combat these negative images and stereotypes with positive representations of ourselves.”
i found this blog post written by Akilah Hughes titled It’s Not About You which highlights some of the same issues that the detractors of #IAmStellenbosch are seeing and feeling:
During the wildly successful Blackout Day of March 6, black people posted and reblogged selfies on social media to promote community and the acceptance of features less visible in popular media. It was an uplifting day meant to remind black people, “you’re beautiful, too.” Some white people took offense. It wasn’t long after #BlackOutDay started trending worldwide on Twitter that the ‘whiteoutday’ hashtag became a thing.
Blackout Day did not claim that non-black people are immune to body image issues, or that others don’t face societal pressures. But, without fail, any time a historically oppressed group asserts their equality by boldly denying any inferiority to someone outside their group, some member of the un-oppressed majority takes it personally. Well, when oppressed groups take the initiative to lift themselves up, it is not an invitation to victimize yourself. Would you go to a toddler’s birthday party and kick over their cake to announce that you, too, have birthdays? The answer should be “no.”
Akilah ends off her post with this statement:
It. Wasn’t. About. Me.
Since that conversation, I’ve learned to listen before I follow my knee-jerk reaction and take offense at movements about which I’m not educated. It isn’t always easy to stop the instinct to be defensive, but it is necessary if things are ever going to get better. After really hearing the other side, ask yourself if anyone loses rights or status when that group gains theirs. John F. Kennedy said, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” It’s important to remember that sweeping progress benefits us all, so let others do what they must to finally achieve equality.
HOW DO THOSE IN THE KNOW DEAL WITH THOSE WHO AREN’T?
Which brings me to a question i posed as a status on Facebook yesterday and want to dig a little more deeply into:
Brett Fish Anderson: So ‘#IAmStellenbosch‘ – ridiculous right? As is #YesAllPeople response to#YesAllWomen and #BlackLivesMatter. i was thinking about it today and it comes i think out of a place of ignorance. So my thought is that it belongs perhaps to the privileged (and not the marginalized) to sit and explain to those in ignorance. So they can know. If then, they choose ignorance after being informed, well then they’re on their own. Those are thoughts that have been running around my head.
As friendlyly as is possible, what is your response to that? i know many of my informed friends are just exhausted from explaining and that for too long it was expected that the marginalised should explain so that is my light bulb moment for today. What think you? #IAmFacebook
To which some of my friends responded:
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Nick Frost: The marginalized can’t explain because the privileged don’t listen. That’s what the whole thing is about, the inability to shut up for once and listen. Stellies students think they can slap a hashtag on a half assed “upliftment initiative” and sing their problems away.
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Bruce Collins: Yeah. I looked at that #iamstellenbosch stuff and all I could think was “what is the point?”
It seems like a way to minimise what people are really experiencing by saying that others do not have similar experiences. It is also, in my opinion, an attempt to justify all that’s wrong at Stellenbosch. You see, just because some people are ok with the status quo that doesn’t mean that the status quo is right.
Furthermore, #iamstellenbosch is all about speaking and very little about listening.
What bothers me most are all the “I’m not a racist” statements. Instead of saying that, live it by listening.
Nick Frost: White guys listening to rap music does not equal the end of racism. Sorry #iamstellenbosch
Bruce Collins: Word! That was so ridiculous. “I am Afrikaans and my favourite artist is Drake”
Noddy badge? Hell no!
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Alexa Russell Matthews: Opportunities to be allies is what went through my head…. [This is a reference to a piece i am working on putting together with some friends of mine over here]
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Beben Cadman: It does not end anything but it highlights stereotypes. Doing something is better than nothing.
Kerri-Leigh Wayne: Exactly, it reinforces stereotypes
Beben Cadman: I don’t think it does. I think the more we say who we think we are the more it creates dialogue, the more we can be challenged, the more we grow. It’s the pretentiousness for a long time that culminated in these realities in this crucial year of 20 years of democracy. Yes we should be listening but talking tells us where we really at. I welcome any dialogue as long as we as people are challenged, reconciled and unified. Even us who might think we standing on the right side of human rights.
Tanisha NishNash Schultz: I feel “I am Stellenbosch” is trying to reinforce unity amongst students.
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Wayne Eaves: Good ask – we are at the beginning of a rise of a new wave of black consciousness in SA (or one just more public, I admit my ignorance), a conversation to which we are not invited at this juncture. Speaking into something uninvited is in many ways the quintessential essence of postmodern privelege. We need to learn to listen, to dig into our own history, deconstruct and restructure various paradigms – which facebook does not give me space to deal with – love the question!
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Megan Furniss: I have a new take. A brand new one. I will no longer be embarrassed by these ignoramuses. I will not care about them.
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Kerri-Leigh Wayne: It definitely isn’t the marginalised who should be explaining. I try to be listening more, like Wayne suggests, that’s been something I really have to work towards. But I still talk to white people around me, even if they remain ignorant and my views are unpopular, because I was, and still am, ignorant too. Being called out is what helps me to see that. I am not embarrassed by these people – they don’t represent me and many people have been socialised quite heavily into believing what they do, so it does not even reflect on the type of person he or she is. I also try not to ever take a conversation (or its derailment) personally. Having said that, I cringe intensely when I see an album like the #IamStellenbosch one but I am glad to see that some of the heaviest criticism of the privileged views espoused by the photos are being tackled by white people in the comments section.
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Brett Fish Anderson: i will blog further on this cos i think it is a helpful conversation to do a little deeper in. i think one of the big problems is that those of us who are somewhat informed – who have walked a bit of a journey in this – take for granted the informedness we have and then assume others have it and are making those same choices. i think we need to give more grace to uninformed and ignorant so that they have the opportunity to become informed and norant? Okay that’s probably not a word but it should be.
i doubt a student in Stellenbosch was being malicious, they honestly did what they thought was a good thing and so there has to be some moment of that opportunity happening to change that. i look back on my journey and at 41 I have been digging into this stuff more deeply for the last five years and so i could quite easily have been that student. I didn’t do so good. So it feels necessary for me to be prepared to take time to coach other people through.
Megan Furniss: You know what I think Brett? You are clever and kind and norant, and brave and full of energy. Spend it on those who need it most, and who can use you best. Others can get in line. There is work to be done and we need to act fast. Just went to witness Lingua Franca and I was totally humbled by them. It’s not about ‘us’ (read white people) anymore.
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What about you? If people around you [or online] seem ignorant about something which you have learned/studied/lived through/experienced do you believe that it is worth taking time and energy to school them with the facts so that they can understand and have a chance to ‘get it’? Or should the focus and emphasis be on those who do and moving forwards with them? Play nice in the comments but i would LOVE to hear some conversation on this…
[For some Creative Ideas on How to Become a Better Ally, click here]
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I’m not sure what the answer is. What I do know is that when I try to challenge my white friends on social platforms about their ignorance, they don’t respond. It’s like they vaporise. However, when I post a family, coffee or food pic, they’re all over it.
I suspect face to face conversations are best. I also think white people just want it all to be over, instead of listening and wrestling. Truth is, the stereotype exists that black consciousness polarises. That is utter rubbish. White ignorance and arrogance does that.
All I know is that I need to listen more to my black friends and challenge the status quo my white friends perpetuate. So, I will be silent. And, I won’t be silent.
So first a bit of backgroung: I was a stellenbosch student for 5 years, and still have some friends who are there. Having lived in the mix and speaking to my friends I am shocked at the about of “chosen ignorance” by those who, by going to university, are meant to value learning. For my research I also had to spend a considerable amount of time in a platteland se dorpie in the Western Cape. Here, for the first time as a city girl, I was exposed to individuals who seemed to believe whole heartedly that racism is right (I had to bight my tongue and clench my fists). These interactions included a conversation with a young man who said “why would I want to go somewhere like Stellenbosch where people think differently to me”. So my point is, Stellies may have a long way to go, but for some of the people on the platteland it is already considered extream, they dont want to know that we are all human and bleed the same blood. I personally choose not to interact with them anymore and come back to my open minded, self improving and queationing friends in Cape Town. Maybe I am not as brave as you Brett, maybe I have chosen my own way to fight for the rights of those who really need it (a whole other essay), but I chose to share with those who want to hear.
Mr Brett, I commend you for always being willing to tackle these issues. It can be incredibly draining. I’ve learned not to jump in on every opportunity to talk about these things on social media – that would leave me an emotional wreck. I also don’t usually respond immediately. I let my thoughts on something swirl and grow and then type a response a little while later (every now and then I will get involved in a “live-stream” debate, but only if I see others that share my view are doing that and getting some extreme trolling thrown at them).
I think social media can be a dangerous platform to do these things because the sense of anonymity can make people more rude than they might be in real life, but I also believe that my profile reflects who I am, and this part of my beliefs should thus be reflected too. Social media was also the platform that helped me to become aware of these issues. So if someone else hadn’t posted something or debated with somebody, my mind might not have opened up to these things as quickly. So, I do think it is important.
Either way, my biggest goal at the moment is to listen. Listen to the stories of those around me and take them seriously. If I see something like the “I am Stellenbosch” campaign being shared by so many people on my timeline, I say something about it on mine. But I can’t jump in on every post about it that I see. And when I feel like it is all too much I take a break from Facebook for a few days. In the meantime I read authors of Critical Race Theory and consider how I can bring these ideas into my day-to-day work as a post-grad music education student.
I think the most important thing is summed up by Megan Furniss: this is not about us (white people) anymore. I am trying to remember that every day and to find the balance between acknowledging that and speaking out when I feel I should.
Thanks Kerri. Appreciate the thoughts and yes it can be draining especially when we are all just trying to figure out what is right and what is not and what deserves critique and when we should get involved and with everyone having different ideas all the time. But good I think and definitely happens online must happen offline in even bigger chunks and strides but like you said online is often the discovery point and it’s what we do beyond there that will really count in the days and years to come.
[…] about this whole #IAmStellenbosch debacle where the focus has once again been put on individuals and a collective cry of LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT […]
[…] caught a glimpse of this in the #IAmStellenbosch campaign where a group of well-meaning students drew up some posters highlighting something about them that […]
something I read recently and I can’t remember by who or where exactly, but the heart of it was that being outraged about something has become popular and if we just post and put a hashtag on our outrage we feel like we’ve done something or are an activist for a cause without actually getting our hands dirty and I think a lot of these “movements” e.g. #IAmStellenbosch #AllLivesMatter etc are just another example of this. we get dragged into internet debates where we are safe but no actual challenge like sitting around a table talking to people from different walks of life about their experiences and actually beginning to understand what it takes to build a unified nation.