I recently wrote an essay where I explored the question in the heading, one that is equally applicable to English-speaking white people in South Africa.
The racist incident at the University of the Free State makes this question relevant yet again, as do the Skielik killings, following on a range of other examples of white-on-black violence that we have seen in the past decade or so.
In the American South, the end of slavery marked the beginning of a surge in lynching. In other words, the end of a formal system of race-based oppression led white racists in the South of the US to informalise repression through lynching, in this way trying to terrorise African-Americans into submission.
Are we dealing with a similar phenomenon here? The racist state is no longer there to give effect to racist policies, as were supported for so many years by the majority of white South Africans; no signs on buildings any more trumpeting where whites may go and blacks not; and no enforced segregation that, if resisted, would lead to bodily harm and death.
So we have an informalisation of racism and racist practices. Some white people have been acting out the role that the apartheid state had: killing black people indiscriminately; humiliating black people; fighting to keep certain spaces white.
Apply this to the most recent ignominious instance: before 1994, Reitz men’s residence at the Free State university would have been kept white by the state. Now, in lieu of the racist state, some boys have taken it upon themselves to stop “integration”.
The white racists of the American South were resorting to lynching to keep black people “in their place”. Is this why some whites in South Africa are attacking and humiliating black people? Probably.
On another level, such whites are reaffirming their identity of whiteness. Racism involves a lot of “othering” talk: “jokes” and stories to indicate how “inferior” black people are to white people. Racist talk seems compulsive, almost a ritualised event in the private spaces of some white people. The same myths are repeated, the same stereotyping regurgitated over and over again.
Through this constant exercise, white identity is illuminated by the opposites identified in black identity: “black equals stupid, lazy, incompetent, dirty”; so white is “not” those things. The Free State video is these racist fantasies put into effect: white boy lording over old, black women on their knees, drinking a pungent and disgusting concoction at the word of their “master”.
The video reminds one of the morphological obsession that Europeans had with people from other continents in the 19th century. The camera seems hypnotised, spending long lengths of time following the women running and dancing at the behest of the “wit basies” (young white masters).
The boys’ attitude in the video is one of arrogance and openly displayed pleasure. They seem to be enjoying doing what white people have been doing for a long time … ever since the first settler set foot on “virgin earth”.
This compulsive racist “othering” is an integral aspect of whiteness as an identity of supremacism. That is where the question comes in: Can apartheid be taken out of white identity in South Africa? So far, the answer seems mostly “no”. In the past while, some white people have become even more defiant in their denial of the injustices of apartheid and colonialism.
Looking specifically at Afrikaners, with a great clanging of bells the Free State video has been disowned by the largest Afrikaner organisations and the most widely read Afrikaans newspaper, Rapport. But read a bit more closely: the rejections contain two worrying aspects.
First, they are emphasising that the Free State boys are individuals whose actions and values do not represent those of most Afrikaners.
Second, the Afrikaner organisations are worried that the Free State video has undermined a good cause. Similarly, the opinion-making Rapport in its editorial comment is also extremely concerned about how this “handful of students” has besmirched the “legitimate” ambitions of Afrikaners — that is, for Afrikaans to exist as a university language and “Afrikaners’ right to spaces where they can be a community”.
Rapport also lashes out at Jody Kollapen, chairperson of the South African Human Rights Commission, for daring to suggest that white people should consider apologising for apartheid.
Thus we have seen a range of defensive responses: “this is not us”; “FW de Klerk’s apology for apartheid was sufficient”; and “what about the attack on our cultural spaces?”
As described above, the video has all the hallmarks of a typical racist regurgitation as heard at present in white discourses in private and not-so-private spaces across the country. To try to pretend that it is a one-off event by a few bad apples is a denial of reality. It happened in a context of widely publicised and expressed white discontent and resentment about the country, its black leadership and black compatriots.
The problem of white denial is sometimes not even the amnesia: it is the denial of white racism that currently exists and the conditions that produce such racism.
A related issue is: Afrikaner identity was to a great extent forged in the fires of apartheid. It has always had the stench of racist exclusivity to it. How does one reconcile this with the call for Afrikaner-only spaces? The statements from the Afrikaner organisations and Rapport were vehement in their claims to Afrikaner rights but refrained from addressing this question.
Is it possible to take apartheid out of whites? Maybe. The first step would be to stop denying that the Free State video boys and the alleged Skielik killer are products of a context of currently existing white racism.
I see this debate has turned to BEE. Come on – just do what everyone else does! I have an aquaintance who has a product that is the best! He spend 30 years getting it to where it was. Nearly bankrupted himself twice. No-ways he was not going to give that away to a pal of the elite. So he has two of the elite whom he supplies and they get the contracts. So he does not supply the end user any more – but hell the end user is only the government i.e you and me pay more for the middleman to get his cut!
@ Foolish Proud Christi
Pro 14:3 In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise shall preserve them.
Pro 16:18 Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Eze 30:6 Thus saith the LORD; They also that uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the sword, saith the Lord GOD.
@ Blaspheming Antichrist Christi
Rev 13:4 And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
Rev 13:5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
Rev 13:6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
Rev 13:7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Rev 13:9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
Rev 13:10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
Witriool – good comment. I think you should start your own blog, you write well.
Christi,
I simply cannot believe this absolute assault on the Afrikaner. You are truly short sighted and irresponsible.
I can only hope that your reasoning and process of thought that gave birth to this disgusting “brain fart” was drug-induced. Here are some more topics you can get stuck into for your next Joke:
1. Why all Germans will allways hate Jews.
2. Can anyone persuade an American Citizen not to support the next Nuclear attack?
3. Failing medical scientist cannot help Australian men: They will allways prefer sheep!
Your article is rediculous, demeaning and racist. I need to take a shower…and brush my teeth. Seeing intelligent people taking part in this and some endorsing it makes me feel dirty and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
P.S. ALL Nigerians are drug dealers…ALL 150 million of them.
I kind of agree with Christi. There is a pernicious form of racism that attempts to paint black people as “incompetent, stupid, and lazy” and white people as not that. But there are several things I would like to add:
- If affirmative action type policies get taken too far, incompetent and stupid people will get promoted over competent and smart people. This is not a race issue. It doesn’t matter who benefits from affirmative action. Some affirmative action is justified, but take it too far and the beneficiaries inevitably will be stupider and more incompetent… and that will be very evident.
- Groups of people do have a right to self-determination (I believe that for Israel and for Afrikaners alike). Afrikaners will very probably not have much say in the government because they are generally viewed as criminals who should be made to pay for their crimes. The fundamental problem is not self-determination, it’s the linking of race to culture. I will openly accept a black or Indian Afrikaner, should we redefine “Afrikanerdom” on the non-oppressive, positive qualities that Afrikaners possess (they do possess them).
This issue of the relationship between race and culture is actually very complex. It isn’t terrible to want to be with people like you, but to tie that to race and to exploit others on the basis of their supposed racial inferiority is wrong. Many countries are free, open, and monocultural.
Actually, I would like to add more: While BEE might go some distance towards improving the South African economy, ultimately the best way to improve the economy is to forget about making things equal and promote expansion. New businesses with black CEOs and black employees. Leave the white companies alone… instead of taking over, just out-compete. There are plenty of talented black African business men, but the way the government is going about things sometimes seems to almost prevent the cream from rising to the top. Often the whites in charge are there because they were good. They will succeed in other environments as well (Afrikaner emigres often do). Let them continue to run their businesses and encourage new black businesses to grow.
Even during Apartheid, the evil white supremacist Afrikaners who had house servants still had to work at their jobs. They may have been better paid… I don’t know the exact details since I didn’t grow up during Apartheid, but that they had to work to rise up out of tremendous poverty following the Anglo-boer war is a fact.