It is extremely rare to hear any white person use the word “k-word” these days. Of course, some of those who are careless or brazen enough to use it end up in the newspapers, reminding us that their ilk still exist.
As an expression of racism the word hardly matters on its own, anyway. It can easily be replaced by another, by a phrase, an attitude or reaction to black people. It’s the same as sexism, homophobia and other forms of hate.
That those who hate do not use any pejoratives, at least not when anyone can hear, does not mean they don’t harbour the hate regardless.
The release of the Reconciliation Barometer by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation has coincided with the first anniversary of former president Nelson Mandela’s death. The late statesman was world renowned for his pursuit of non-racialism, among his many other struggles. There are questions, however, as to whether SA has made as much progress on this score as many believe.
There is a definite tension in the air which has occasionally found expression when nut cases such as a certain fading musician, probably after working himself up into a fit, take to social networks to insult black people’s experience with apartheid and racism.
At other times it is when someone like a certain swimming coach from Cape Town elects to assault a black woman minding her own business because he thinks she is prostituting herself in a part of her country of birth where the expectation is that she is an “alien”.
At such times the intensity of the discussion extends to the generally taboo subject of whether or not the brand of reconciliation Mandela pursued is not part of the reason racial tensions are resurgent today.
The other reasons pertain to the stubbornly racial nature of inequalities which are increasingly amplified by the culture of crass materialism. One merely needs to watch SABC television show Top Billing to see what I refer to.
While salivating and worshipping displays of opulence on the one hand, the same viewers easily recall the stark racial realities when they are angry. While many get satisfaction and credibility points from criticising rabid racists, there is a far deeper problem that the country has not even begun to confront, and that is subliminal racism and prejudice in general.
If anything, the existence of extremists gives false comfort to those who practise subliminal racism that they are not racist when, in fact, they are. Open racists also help to create an environment where racism is narrowly viewed rather than seen in the wider context in which it exists.
As a consequence we continue to breed more racism, and to create false comfort with racial inequalities when we should be increasingly uncomfortable. Many shirk at the proposition that SA is still a racist society. They point to the many instances where South Africans from all races occupy the same spaces and work together in many ways, but this is superficial and somewhat dishonest.
However, we cannot claim to be a nonracial society when many still find the idea of marrying across the racial lines skin-crawling. I am also not aware of many black doctors who are generally patronised by white patients unless the said doctor is at a hospital.
These and many other similar examples fall in the realm of personal choices, but it is precisely in these categories that our true feelings about other races are to be found.
The doctor-patient relationship is incredibly private and personal. Doctors get into spaces in which only significant others and family are allowed, and even then, some family may not have similar access. The idea that a black doctor may have similar access is exactly what makes black doctors’ clientele mainly black.
It is these same people, who are uncomfortable with nonracial personal choices, who also claim to have nonracial credentials, scream at overt racists as much as black people do, and will even march against racism if called upon to do so.
Racism survives because racist thinking has been woven into the moral fibre of our society. It is the thinking that informs our subconsciousness about who is likely to be violent, corrupt, lazy and generally inept. It is these feelings that sometimes permeate in what could otherwise pass as objective, nonracial observation or criticism.
This subliminal racism is what makes so many of us to be comfortable with unequal opportunities from birth, and make dishonest assumptions that the playing field is the same for all of the country’s children when they start life. It is not. It is black children who are less likely to have access to well-equipped schools and well-paid teachers than white children. It is the normalisation of these inequalities, not the use of the k-word that militates against Madiba’s life dream.
Our task is soul-searching and consequent individual transformation, not just calling out open racists.
Songezo Zibi is the editor of Business Day
Subliminal racism in SA
As an expression of racism the word hardly matters on its own, anyway. It can easily be replaced by another, by a phrase, an attitude or reaction to black people. It’s the same as sexism, homophobia and other forms of hate.
That those who hate do not use any pejoratives, at least not when anyone can hear, does not mean they don’t harbour the hate regardless.
The release of the Reconciliation Barometer by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation has coincided with the first anniversary of former president Nelson Mandela’s death. The late statesman was world renowned for his pursuit of non-racialism, among his many other struggles. There are questions, however, as to whether SA has made as much progress on this score as many believe.
There is a definite tension in the air which has occasionally found expression when nut cases such as a certain fading musician, probably after working himself up into a fit, take to social networks to insult black people’s experience with apartheid and racism.
At other times it is when someone like a certain swimming coach from Cape Town elects to assault a black woman minding her own business because he thinks she is prostituting herself in a part of her country of birth where the expectation is that she is an “alien”.
At such times the intensity of the discussion extends to the generally taboo subject of whether or not the brand of reconciliation Mandela pursued is not part of the reason racial tensions are resurgent today.
The other reasons pertain to the stubbornly racial nature of inequalities which are increasingly amplified by the culture of crass materialism. One merely needs to watch SABC television show Top Billing to see what I refer to.
While salivating and worshipping displays of opulence on the one hand, the same viewers easily recall the stark racial realities when they are angry. While many get satisfaction and credibility points from criticising rabid racists, there is a far deeper problem that the country has not even begun to confront, and that is subliminal racism and prejudice in general.
If anything, the existence of extremists gives false comfort to those who practise subliminal racism that they are not racist when, in fact, they are. Open racists also help to create an environment where racism is narrowly viewed rather than seen in the wider context in which it exists.
As a consequence we continue to breed more racism, and to create false comfort with racial inequalities when we should be increasingly uncomfortable. Many shirk at the proposition that SA is still a racist society. They point to the many instances where South Africans from all races occupy the same spaces and work together in many ways, but this is superficial and somewhat dishonest.
However, we cannot claim to be a nonracial society when many still find the idea of marrying across the racial lines skin-crawling. I am also not aware of many black doctors who are generally patronised by white patients unless the said doctor is at a hospital.
These and many other similar examples fall in the realm of personal choices, but it is precisely in these categories that our true feelings about other races are to be found.
The doctor-patient relationship is incredibly private and personal. Doctors get into spaces in which only significant others and family are allowed, and even then, some family may not have similar access. The idea that a black doctor may have similar access is exactly what makes black doctors’ clientele mainly black.
It is these same people, who are uncomfortable with nonracial personal choices, who also claim to have nonracial credentials, scream at overt racists as much as black people do, and will even march against racism if called upon to do so.
Racism survives because racist thinking has been woven into the moral fibre of our society. It is the thinking that informs our subconsciousness about who is likely to be violent, corrupt, lazy and generally inept. It is these feelings that sometimes permeate in what could otherwise pass as objective, nonracial observation or criticism.
This subliminal racism is what makes so many of us to be comfortable with unequal opportunities from birth, and make dishonest assumptions that the playing field is the same for all of the country’s children when they start life. It is not. It is black children who are less likely to have access to well-equipped schools and well-paid teachers than white children. It is the normalisation of these inequalities, not the use of the k-word that militates against Madiba’s life dream.
Our task is soul-searching and consequent individual transformation, not just calling out open racists.
Songezo Zibi is the editor of Business Day
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