This is a comment that ‘Jul’ posted on one of my blog posts the other day and deserved to be a blog post of its own [hope that’s okay, Jul?]:
For over 21 years, black South Africans have largely forgiven the majority of the white population who repeatedly voted in a racist government that dehumanised and denied them their most basic human rights. Despite the prolonged emotional, mental and physical suffering to themselves and their families, black people have, in the name of freedom and reconciliation, and “a better life for all”, willingly forgone retribution.
Have whites responded with the same generosity of spirit? Not even close.
Most whites in South Africa are racist. Even those who profess not to be racist are racist. Unless it is especially blatant most do not even recognise racism – especially in themselves.
When it is pointed out, they become defensive and angry, instead of humble and apologetic.
Racism is in our psyche and in our blood. Centuries of conditioning have genetically engineered us to be racist: to genuinely believe that we whites are superior.
For thousands of years the Biblical lexicon has associated darkness with sin and evil and whiteness with light and good. Most whites accept without question that Western culture is desirable and should supersede all others; that black culture is barbaric and undesirable; that whites are more intelligent than blacks; that whites are hard workers and blacks are lazy.
Whites see black people living in conditions they would never contemplate and fallaciously presume that black people are okay with it or, worse, deserve it. They see black people exclusively cleaning our homes, our gardens, our pools, our streets, our businesses and our schools and collecting our garbage. “They” are the labourers who dig the trenches in our streets and dig the diamonds and gold from our deep rock. “They” have done these things forever. More recently “they” are the faces of crime and of the incompetent and corrupt.
So “they” are nothing like us.
Except they are.
“White supremacy” conditioning has been thorough – but, in South Africa today, there is no place for racism and nothing will excuse it.
White South Africans regularly abscond from the burden of responsibility that the past places on their shoulders in the present: “I wasn’t even born / I’m not responsible / I never voted NP / It’s the government’s responsibility.”
This attitude cripples our ability to work together to build South Africa into a peaceful, prosperous democratic state.
Julius Malema, in an interview with a Sunday newspaper earlier this month, is spot on when he says white people will continue to feel superior – to regard black people even as animals – until the material living conditions of black people are equal to that of the whites. It’s a Herculean task – it needs every South African on board, working together.
To move forward we have to accept that our superior economic freedoms today (ie our superior access to resources) have come at the expense of our black compatriots and continue to do so, and that we are obligated to assist in whichever way we can.
Whites need to take on board the criticisms that we are racist; that, unconsciously or consciously, we too often say and do things that are hurtful and damaging to the majority of South Africans. To understand racism we have to listen more and deflect less. We have to demolish “us” and “them” and just be us.
The present government has failed to build a more equitable society. Economic development is stifled by nepotism, corruption, inefficiency and unaccountability. Our leaders’ shortcomings feed into whites’ tendency to stereotype and generalise in terms of race and so all black people are judged by the actions of a corrupt minority. The ANC government itself regularly fuels the fires of racism by labelling white critics as racist. (Black critics are either coconuts or counter-revolutionaries.)
Black people are tired of waiting for access to the only real means to acquire economic freedom: that being a quality education that will enable them to lift themselves and their families out of poverty and hardship.
They are tired of broken promises from the government and of their harsh living conditions; they are tired of the total lack of empathy from their white counterparts; and they are especially tired of white people’s racist and fallacious criticism that their material circumstances result from laziness and attitudes of entitlement.
The magnanimity of black South Africans is cracking: service delivery protests are rising in number and violence. Racism with a strong anti-white sentiment is becoming commonplace on all social media platforms.
Wake up White South Africa. You cannot hide in a laager. You cannot all emigrate to Australia! Be an advocate for change. The more the government fails, the more we need to pull together and build together.
Our children and grandchildren’s futures are intrinsically tied to the futures of all South Africans. We need equality no matter what. We all need the same houses and same structure no matter what. Agree?
We will sink or swim together.
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I find some truths to this post, especially as a white male sitting watching rugby with other white males, the topic usually comes up. Many whites are still racist, but what I find also true is that many white Afrikaners are racist and also against English speaking people. I’m not sure if you were old enough in the 70s or 80s, but in many areas, English people were discriminated against. Not in the same way as they discriminated against black people, but it was there and it was significant. For example most television was dubbed into afrikaans, money that could be used to uplift the poor. In the army we would not get promoted as quickly as say Frikkie who had a STD 6 but was an afrikaans “boytjie” who liked the rugby. There are numerous occasions where if I did not look in a mirror, I would swear I were black.
I am not trying to take anything away from the black people’s struggle at all. I think many English people feel that we are to blame for a lot of what the old Afrikaner government did. They sat around the braai with beer and boerewors and plotted against black people and a bit against English people.
I get angry when I hear an afrikaans guy say, “f daardie k’s” or “soutie”. I think back to the army and I think of the uneducated opinionated Afrikaners who made us stand at the back of the food queue but at the front on the border. I feel the anger of the black man. There is nothing worse than that feeling of being mocked and sidelined just because of your skin color or language.
I think black people should try to understand that many English people fought the old NP. We should not be grouped into a “whites” group. English people did not have it as bad as blacks by a long shot, but we do know how it was, after running full pack and it’s only the “souties” who must now redo it, only the “souties” who never seem to have a neat bed, shoes and all.
How do we go about redistribution? How much land, where are all questions we need answered very soon or there will be a civil war. The rand is almost at R20 to the dollar. We in trouble and need answers and we need to ask the right questions and fast.
My solution would be a government incentive for mixed race marriages and kids. An incentive if you start a business. A cap on wealth of R100 million. Nobody needs more than R100 million. The rest must go to the poor. Especially historic money from before 1994. Free education if you pass. No etoll. Free medical. Solar power, community gardens and ride share schemes. There is a lot we can do but it must happen quickly.
A well balanced, clear, potent blog post Brett.
Thanks, but i hope it was clear that none of the words were mine – just a comment i received that i chose to rather post so more people would get eyes on it. Because it had really good stuff to say…
Hey, interesting and agree with most of what you say. But the part about equality? How to we fix that when the population growth of black people is so high. If it were 50 50, it would be okay, but how can if we scale it, how can 9 white people make equality for 89 black people? If a white person has a house in a suburb, must he sell it and give the money to black people? We need to know something concrete going forward.
I worked for many years as an English speaker in an Afrikaans university and I can echo, although I do not wholly endorse what Tony says. Having seen the utterly disgusting behaviour of the White students at UFS it seems this white supremacist attitude is alive and flourishing among large groups of white Afrikaans speakers. The comments on Maz du Preez column calling for insight and maturity are shocking.