IT IS quite disheartening to read about the “blackface” antics of students at both the universities of Pretoria and Stellenbosch.
How is it that 20 years into our democratic and racially equal society there can be such ignorant and insensitive acts – by tertiary level students nogal?
In painting their faces black and padding their behinds with cushions to mimic the big bums of black women, these students have implied a stereotype of black people that is both offensive and inappropriate.
And to add insult to injury, they then posted the pictures of themselves kitted up like this on social media.
It is very sad that racial mockery still lingers in South Africa, especially given our history and when it is so offensive to other people’s identity and culture.
“Blackface” painting has an ugly history going back almost 200 years. It was and remains derogatory towards African people.
Dating back to the mid-1800s, in the slavery era in America, it was a form of entertainment for white people. Theatre performers would paint their faces black to mimic and caricature a supposedly uncivilised way of African life.
Later, spreading to Europe it lasted even longer in theatres there.
These performances were finally banned in America in the 1960s, thanks to pressure from the civil rights movement.
It was correctly deemed to be proliferating and cementing racist attitudes, perceptions and bigotry about other people’s culture and identity.
To now see the curtain being lifted on this kind of behaviour in South Africa with it being splashed around on the social media by young people, the very ones who one would hope are espousing and promoting the values of a new rainbow nation, is both hurtful and worrying.
Is there hope for social reintegration? And why can’t we learn from history, especially since we are such a scarred and vastly racial diverse nation?
I think of Jirra Lulla Harvey, an aboriginal from Australia who said: “‘Blackface’ is a hurtful and degrading history that denied our right to self-representation and helped to create the racial stereotypes that plague our nation today.”
It is mind-boggling that some in our country are still capable of such misdirected behaviour. Some have defended these actions saying the students were ignorant and did not know any better. But ignorance cannot be used to justify these distasteful acts.
And especially not when students come from universities which were once, for the apartheid regime, symbols of the Afrikaner supremacy that perpetuated racial divides.
They should surely have known better. More so, our society must know better.
Recent research by Ipsos Markinor shows that since 1994 society is more racially divided now than ever before. These types of acts will further entrench racial division and mistrust in our society.
Insensitivity and ignorance is by and large a fact that is tearing us apart and derailing our efforts to build a rainbow nation building and strengthening a non-racial democracy.
Knight Mali is a DA councillor in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro
'Blackface' remains disrespectful
How is it that 20 years into our democratic and racially equal society there can be such ignorant and insensitive acts – by tertiary level students nogal?
In painting their faces black and padding their behinds with cushions to mimic the big bums of black women, these students have implied a stereotype of black people that is both offensive and inappropriate.
And to add insult to injury, they then posted the pictures of themselves kitted up like this on social media.
It is very sad that racial mockery still lingers in South Africa, especially given our history and when it is so offensive to other people’s identity and culture.
“Blackface” painting has an ugly history going back almost 200 years. It was and remains derogatory towards African people.
Dating back to the mid-1800s, in the slavery era in America, it was a form of entertainment for white people. Theatre performers would paint their faces black to mimic and caricature a supposedly uncivilised way of African life.
Later, spreading to Europe it lasted even longer in theatres there.
These performances were finally banned in America in the 1960s, thanks to pressure from the civil rights movement.
It was correctly deemed to be proliferating and cementing racist attitudes, perceptions and bigotry about other people’s culture and identity.
To now see the curtain being lifted on this kind of behaviour in South Africa with it being splashed around on the social media by young people, the very ones who one would hope are espousing and promoting the values of a new rainbow nation, is both hurtful and worrying.
Is there hope for social reintegration? And why can’t we learn from history, especially since we are such a scarred and vastly racial diverse nation?
I think of Jirra Lulla Harvey, an aboriginal from Australia who said: “‘Blackface’ is a hurtful and degrading history that denied our right to self-representation and helped to create the racial stereotypes that plague our nation today.”
It is mind-boggling that some in our country are still capable of such misdirected behaviour. Some have defended these actions saying the students were ignorant and did not know any better. But ignorance cannot be used to justify these distasteful acts.
And especially not when students come from universities which were once, for the apartheid regime, symbols of the Afrikaner supremacy that perpetuated racial divides.
They should surely have known better. More so, our society must know better.
Recent research by Ipsos Markinor shows that since 1994 society is more racially divided now than ever before. These types of acts will further entrench racial division and mistrust in our society.
Insensitivity and ignorance is by and large a fact that is tearing us apart and derailing our efforts to build a rainbow nation building and strengthening a non-racial democracy.
Knight Mali is a DA councillor in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro
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