Do We Still See Skin Colour?: Racism In South Africa

According to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), South Africans are becoming more racist. According to cases reported to the SAHRC in 2015, Gauteng is the most racist province with 121 reported cases of racism, followed by Kwazulu-Natal (41 reported cases), the Western Cape (29 reported cases) and the Free State (25 reported cases).

2016 has been plagued with reports of racism in the media, from Ntokozo Qwabe and Matthew Theunissen to Judge Mabel Jansen. Not only were the racist incidents widely reported, but South Africans all too often reacted with racism.

Here are just a few examples examples of unrepentant racism, hate speech and incitement to violence from South African citizens on social media (screenshots are included for purposes of verification in the gallery):

“white people just get bored and start saying absolute nonsense. Wow please please just die. Please” (Beyhovas Witness 2.0 on Twitter, 9 May 2016).
“The Bantu is a savage. Nothing will ‘move forward’.” and “’Say it loudly, say it proudly…. KAFFIR’.” (Exitness on Twitter, 7 May 2016).
“Descendants of Boers known now as Afrikaners like @steve_hofmeyr and @danroodt must be necklaced for irritating Blacks in their own land.” (Thabo Arafat Molamu on Twitter, 11 May 2016).
Sandile Ngwenya posted on Facebook: “To my fellow Africans next time when we visits these pigs, we must make sure that’s before we take their belongings, […] en make sure their women sucks our dicks en if they have baby child we put them in oven en turn it’s on.”
“There is no worse house nigger behavior than DA blacks to rejoice, partake & promote the ‘swart gevaar’ campaign of their party against EFF” (Mbuyiseni Ndlozi on Twitter, 4 May 2016).
In reference to white genocide: “Not genocide when u clearing rubbish!!” (motosoko charles on Twitter, 6 May 2016).
“[…] maybe Malema was right, we should drive all of these pigs ( white people ) to the sea.” and “hope u noting that we getting fed-up with you pigs ( whites) and our patience is running thin.U & ur arrogance will have nowhere 2 hide 1day”. (Guerilla Fighter on Twitter, 1 May 2016).
Mbongeni Mbora Mafilika posted on Facebook: “The only way to fight racism is to KILL […] THEM/ #TRUST NO WHITE/ #NO MERCY/ #NO CHILD/ KILL THEM ALL/ MY LAST SAY THE NEXT THING IS ACTION”

On 3 May 2016, the South African Gov (@GovernmentZA) Tweeted: “Racism in all forms: white against black, black against white – will not be tolerated in South Africa #MatthewTheunissen”. This post was later removed after an influx of comments claiming that blacks cannot be racist! I would like to correct this idea. Black people can be racist and there are many examples of racism practised by black people.

“Black people can never be racist – we never had the tools or power to institutionalise racial oppression”, as quoted from an article by Sobantu Mzwakali in Pambazuka News, is one of many excuses black people use when they are called out on their racism. And here is why it’s wrong:

Firstly, the definition of racism (from the English Oxford Dictionary) is “the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races”, or less specifically “prejudice based on skin colour”. Although racism is often accompanied by the belief that one’s race is superior to another, such a belief is not required for racism to take place. Saying that black people cannot be racist implies one of two things: 1. That black people are morally superior to other racial groups and thus cannot be racist or, 2. That black people are morally inferior to other racial groups and thus cannot be racist. Either way, it is a racist remark to make in and of itself, and not a valid excuse for any honest person.

Secondly, if one looks at the post-Apartheid government in South Africa, black people have had every opportunity and all the tools and power to institutionalise racial oppression. And in a way, they have - through BEE. However, I am not saying that BEE is not useful, in theory, for addressing inequalities. After Apartheid, BEE appears to be an important way to hasten change towards a state of equality (I suggest reading my article “Black Economic Empowerment: It Isn’t Working” for my opinion on why it is failing the poor and unemployed black people of South Africa). Clearly, saying that black people cannot be racist because they do not have the tools or power to oppress others based on race is a blatant lie, used liberally to protect black racists from the appropriate consequences of their hate speech.

One of the things that worry me most about the current political climate in South Africa is that at least two political parties, the African National Congress (ANC) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) are using racial division to gain votes for their party. Political parties are actually encouraging racism! This is like a child getting his parents to fight and possibly divorce so he can get away with stealing from them. In a way, these political parties are mining the pillars that support our society, to pay their way: they only have their own interests at heart and they are short-sighted about it.

Little does the average supporter of such a party realise that going through the stated racist goals of disadvantaging one race in favour of another in new and more radical ways, like land or property seizure, or acting on the genocidal sentiment so apparent in many messages in social media recently, would most likely lead to the collapse of this country. Our constitution is strong, but such a blatant betrayal of its values could be the end of faith in its power. Investors from the wealthy west, Russia and China are mostly non-black; would they invest somewhere where their assets could be seized because they are not black? The economy would not last long if SA breached trust with citizens and foreign investors.

Another thing that worries me is judicial inequality. White racists are often punished swiftly and harshly, while black racism is overlooked. Does this sound odd? Surely all citizens of South Africa are equal before the law? I wish I could say that justice in this country is blind, but with each example one considers it seems clearer and clearer that the judicial response to one's comments and actions is coloured unavoidably by the colour of one's skin.

Consider the massive fallout over remarks by the now infamous Penny Sparrow, comparing black people to monkeys. It was mentioned on the news for days, if not weeks. Many South Africans spewed forth a variety of vile racist remarks against her and white people, in general, in response and charges have been laid against her.

Contrast the aforementioned situation with how there is no suggestion of consequences for Malema making a similar monkey comparison – plainly aimed at Helen Zille, though her name was not specifically named. Or consider a more recent, more broad case: Zuma's comments about “stolen land”. The South African Human Rights Commission refused to even investigate complaints made against Zuma's carefree utterance of racially divisive comments.

If a few examples are not enough, have a little look through Twitter or Facebook. It takes relatively little effort to find dozens upon dozens of incetements to black-on-white violence, or even white genocide. Then try finding incitements to white-on-black violence, or black genocide. If you find even a roughly equivalent amount of the latter – unlikely, unless you put a lot of effort into avoiding the former – look at the volume of the reaction to these comments. The extent of the negative reaction (and statistical chance for a SAHRC complaint to lead to any consequences) can be correlated with race by even the most casual of readers.

There are many who believe that racism is human nature. I believe this to be false, for more than one reason. As C.L.R. James states in his book, Modern Politics:

“[H]istorically, it is pretty well proved now that the ancient Greeks and Romans knew nothing about race. They had another standard – civilized and barbarian – and you could have white skin and be a barbarian, and you could be black and civilized.”

A band called Disturbed has a song which addresses this very issue: Who Taught You How to Hate? As the name suggests, the lyrics of the song suggest that prejudice (like racism, though not limited to that) is a learned trait. It claims that hate “isn't in your blood”, and gives the example of young children playing together, black and white alike, with no thought of colour on their minds.

In fact, the modern concept of racism was first introduced by Karl Marx. This concept encompasses prejudice and bigotry based on race, as well as the idea that one race is superior to another. It refers to economical oppression, and Marx bases much of his theory on slavery in America (where slaves were mainly black).

It is commonly believed black slaves were taken by force from their communities. Yet, it is well-documented that African leaders made a common practice of selling members of their community to foreigners and even to other tribes. Slavery, despite being used widely by western nations during the time when colonisation was popular, cannot be attributed solely to western civilisation.

For anyone who considers reason and education to be important – go read the Wikipedia page about slavery. A notable fact on that page is the fact that slavery was already part of cultures in parts of Europe, the Middle East, the Far East and even pre-colonisation America at the start of recorded history. In fact, the dominant slave-owning cultures for a very long time were the Muslim Arabian nations.

How about slavery in Africa? Slaves were taken from Africa to Arab nations (and from Europe to Arab nations, as well) for a very long time before Europe and Africa were involved in an industry of slave trade. Then the Europeans came and took slaves, right? As a matter of fact, European slaves were popular in African countries like Algiers before the reverse happened. The irony is rather heady when one takes the time to study history before abusing it as an excuse for racism.

Along with racism, comes the debate about land. I do not want to spend too much time on this, but I want to point out that a lot of the land in South Africa that is now owned by whites, was sold to them by tribal leaders. All indications show that the majority of land in South Africa is owned by black people. Rough numbers suggest that 52% belongs to black people, 27% to white people, 14% is state owned and 7% of land is owned by other groups. That makes the government the biggest single entity owning land in South Africa. Clearly it is still not perfectly representative, but the trend is towards proportional land ownership – that is not the source of our problems.

And before one argues that the black tribes of South Africa were betrayed, tricked or oppressed, have a look at the betrayal murder of Piet Retief, a Trekker leader, and his entire entourage including women and children by Dingaan, after they had signed a land deal. Clearly, some black tribes were hardly behaving in honourable ways themselves – there is no excuse for racism there.

Generalising all black people as being like any single tribe is racism, pure and simple. Recent protests in Vuwani have certainly made it clear that not all black people consider themselves to be of the same culture. Similarly, claiming that all white people are guilty of the alleged racism of Rhodes is racism, inexcusable and intolerable – anyone claiming such things must surely have forgotten that black and white fought together against the English in the Anglo-Boer war.

Racism in South Africa is on the rise. And the more racism we display, the more racist people will become. Racism begets racism and hatred fuels hatred. It is a vicious cycle. Other issues linked to racism are tribalism and xenophobia. Both of these are issues that are in the background for most, because it is so difficult to admit that our cultures and peoples may be flawed in horrific ways and capable of unforgivable things.

To end off, I’d like to implore my readers to be open with themselves. Let go, for a moment, of any hatred that you may feel in the moment, and ask yourself: have you been racist? Would you like to be treated the way you have treated others? Are you OK with pressing someone in a box with a skin colour label? If not, see it as your duty to improve yourself. Racism will not fix our situation and revenge has never helped anyone. Help end racism by ending it, first, in yourself.

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