By Rachel Nyaradzo Adams
I have grappled with the Reitz Four saga for some time now. When I first watched the video, I was in the process of completing research for my master’s dissertation which explored the difficulties of “deracialising” South African universities. Using my alma mater, the University of Cape Town, as a case study, it became evident that though “race” or “racism” was often close at hand as the explanation for many of the university’s struggles with retaining young black learners and so on, it was often not the real cause for slow transformation within the university (though it played a certain role in the process).
What the weight of the evidence showed is that when it comes to curriculum, institutional and structural challenges faced by the university, it was easier for learners and educators alike (both black and white), to resort to “race” as an explanation for these challenges. Black learners would for example complain that professors discriminated against them because of their blackness, while some of the language used by a number of white educators was laden with the “us and them” jargon that insinuated a kind of white superiority.
Digging deeper, however, it was clear that the more pertinent challenges in this context were largely infrastructural than they were of a racial nature. The university needed to recognise that despite many useful and recognisable efforts, they had not created nearly enough equal opportunity for some learners to succeed as they had for others. Barriers had been created (whether purposefully or not) for many black learners through things like, language (a resistance to recognising the validity of a “poorer English” when it came to marking scripts, especially in the social sciences for example), the hierarchy of cultures (UCT is by and large Eurocentric), and a largely Eurocentric curriculum amongst other things.
Many of the learners and educators (particularly educators) were aware of these issues (these findings are not new). But what was interesting in the whole experience was the ease with which people slipped into “racial” reasoning when conditions became frustrating or difficult to explain. At the height of a frustrating conversation, I knew that race was lurking, waiting to be pulled from the corridors of history and placed neatly once again as a valid tool of analysis in the present.
But what I also knew is that when learners complained of racism, what they were most likely frustrated about was a lack of opportunity and limited access to academic success. What they were asking for were resources and validation of their peculiar challenges which stem largely from systemic and background issues. What they were rightly demanding was that the university be more cognizant of its diversity and effect the changes needed to accommodate that diversity. And when they levelled their valid arguments for this to a largely white audience (in the form of management and professors) and were either ignored or dismissed, then race and racism became the next conversation to be had. And whether race was the issue here or not, it can be argued that had the university put in place the infrastructures really needed to make these students successful, then the race conversation would become less salient or possibly even obsolete.
Fast forward to the Reitz Four. As I watched that video over and over again on YouTube I must admit that what I saw (and still see) more than anything else is four very ignorant and idiotic men who clearly have a limited moral compass about how to treat fellow human beings. I see young men so caught up in their own mundaneness that they had time (and resources) to make a video in which they use other human beings (elders for that matter), as their guinea pigs for a distasteful “Fear Factor” replication. (Interestingly enough, the images took me back to my days at UCT when I witnessed many white male students play out similar “initiation” ceremonies, except in this case they were doing it to each other, and the conditions were even more appalling). I see young men who did not know where to draw the line between pranks that may be acceptable with your friends and the respect that is due to those who may not be interested or understand the implications of the actions you impose on them.
The unfortunate thing is that in this case, these boys created a sensitive image (and situation) that arouses too many painful memories for everyone in this country. And as illustrated in the research I mention above, amidst their evidently regressive behaviour, they further regressed into racial language to justify or explain their antics. And what better thing to do in a country where race is still so salient? What better thing to do when four misdirected and ill-socialised young boys decide that they are going to be “funny” and create a video that they are going to later show as entertainment to their friends or to the cyber community? They knew it would pull an audience! They knew it would raise controversy! And look! It worked.
Is this to say that the UFS boys were not racist? Maybe they were, maybe they were not. There is no litmus test available to prove racism, seeing race itself is effectively a construct. What can be said for sure, however, is that here is a country so affected and influenced by a racialised history that the only language these boys had to explain their behaviour was racial. It was easy for them too — the context they were acting in was very racialised. What can also be said for sure is that here is a country so caught up in the limits of racial discourse that any misunderstanding that happens between lighter and darker skins is necessarily racial. And this may be true but what is then to be said about cases where the new middle class of black people also treat their domestic help like “lesser than” beings? What is to be said about an emerging class of black people who now find it difficult to “fraternise with the help”. What is to be said about the amount of abuse that is heaped onto domestic help in black households including physical and even sexual abuse! These things exist. The only difference is that they have not been caught on tape and they have not been brought into popular discourse!
What I believe the Reitz Four video should have done for this country was to create room for a discourse not on race but on economic disparities and the vulnerability it creates for too many of this country’s poor. What that video should have done was to inspire an outcry about worker rights and the level to which institutions fail to protect their workers. What that video should have done was to bring to the fore issues of elitism and classism which are a disease of all of us within the capitalist system, black and white! What that video should have done was to create a platform from which those workers were allowed voice, their own voice, in which they could interpret the situation for us instead of us interpreting it for them.
Am I saying that race is not an issue in South Africa? Well, no. I for one have been troubled by white supremacist attitudes in this country for a long time. I have been bothered by the arrogance and sense of entitlement that a number of white people still walk around with, often in subtle but recognisable ways. I am angered daily by evidence around me that white privilege still exists and that I remain patronised by it on many levels! I have been confounded by white people that really believe that they are superior to me by virtue of the fact that they have a paler skin and I have a darker skin. But I am equally troubled by the nuances of my own inferiority complex (which often catches me by surprise), and allows me to descend into thinking in an “us and them” mind-frame. I am also troubled by a growing black elite who now act equally as selfishly and patronisingly as their former coloniser.
The point, however, is that the regression continually to racial language to address such issues, while emotionally satisfying in some ways, tends to mask larger structural issues and processes that remain unchallenged. The point is that racial language has become too close to us to the extent where it has become the be all and end all of many a political and social debate. It simply does not allow us to think strategically but traps us in an emotional and angry cycle that limits our ability to get to the root of these matters — and the root is largely economic and political.
And South Africa will do well to remember that it was the same regression into ethnic language that got Rwanda into trouble in 1994? In fact, in Rwanda it regressed to such an extent that Tutsis became “cockroaches” that must be exterminated. And because ethnicity was so salient in that context, all it took was a radio broadcast, machetes and a hundred days to create genocide of shocking proportions! I am sure Rwandans would have never imagined the power of their own language and discourses in creating such a bloody episode. But it did and the results did nothing to address the real issue — a growing gap between those with access to resources and those without.
This is a warning to all of us that if we do not do the real work that needs to be done to close the gap between those with access to resources and those without, then we will soon find ourselves in the regressive state that often leads to bloody wars that are justified through racial/ethnic language but really have economics, resources and/or issues of access at their base. We address that, and then we may very well have ridden ourselves of race issues in this country. And anyone who will want to regress into racial language or behaviour again will be, well, plain ignorant and silly!
So I pose the question: what if the Reitz Four were more disrespectful, inhumane and ignorant than they were racist? Would that allow us to go beyond the race debate and challenge the real gaps in this country that allow certain people to be more vulnerable to abuse than others?
Rachel Nyaradzo Adams has a master’s degree in African Studies from Oxford University. She is a social scientist who is openly disgruntled by current world systems and seeks to make commentary that will make us uncomfortable with them.
“…to say that the UFS boys were not racist? Maybe they were, maybe they were not. There is no litmus test available to prove racism, seeing race itself is effectively a construct”
Already you’ve made your mind. What’s the use of writing or asking the question about this?
In fact this is increasingly becoming yet another boring subject. It falls in the same catergoRy as Palestine/Israel debacle. China/Daila Lama. Mugabe/Tsvangirai. Odinga/Kibaki. India/Pakistan
Racist boys. Forgiven Boys. Not racist boys. UOVS.UFS…Yawwn..zzzzZZZZZ
Leave the damn thing to sleep, or a footnote as it has now become.
The are many black students who write very ell but are still disregarded. It is pathetic of you to suggest that the struggles that blacks face at Universities are mainly due to there not being enough people to understand them becasue they cannot articulate themselves in a sophisticated way.
If the Reitz Four are not racist-as you so claim- then why did they use racist language thereafter? Would they have done that to elderly white tannies? I think not. You MS Adams, are not making sense at all
And now the change of tone? You “scholars” should make up your minds
Another subtle sympathy seeking article full of hypocritical comments. Take the wood out of your own eye before you seek splinters in others eyes.
You did not see that the video included an ‘anti-intergration’ message – OR You still pretend you don’t see racism.
RACISM = A BELIEF THAT SOMEONE IS INFERIOR BASED ON THE COLOUR OF THEIR SKIN
I agree with Phillipa You MS Adams, are bubbling when we need directions.
I’d rather you keep to scholary writing, the kind of stuff only 20 people read per year-I mean no harm but come on…
Finally a calm voice on this issue and I agree with a lot of your propositions, especially the background differences which DO contribute to success and failure in academic institutions.
I said before on another blog that there is more to this incident. I am yet to be convinced that the participants were not just idiots.
Racism should be the last straw we reach for but, as you will see even on this blog, respondents will grab that race straw first and foremost.
Expect some to reject your hypothesis out of hand because, let’s face it, calling someone a racist in this country is far easier than dealing with their argument – just ask the ANCYL!
@Phillipa and @MuAfrika. I think you misread the argument. The writing example was just that, an example – amongst many others that exist for high attrition rates of black learners in South African Universities. I am not too sure where you read the comment about “sophisticated writing” either? (By the way I am one of those black students who wrote reasonably well but was still many-a-time disregarded and had to fight that fight). I believe the crux of my argument was not about learners being misunderstood but them not having infrastructures available to them at university to succeed.
I argue also that the Reitz Four’s use of racial language may very well have to do with the fact that that’s what we pretty much have available to us in this region of the world, racial language, not that it is not always legitimate. The problem with that though is if we stop there, then we fail to ask other pertinent questions that go beyond the racial argument.
@What now. While the MR Scholars write under the same banner, we do not share the same views on certain issues.
@Siphiwo. It may be boring but it is relevant. I’m sure we’re all as bored as you are by these issues but if no real work is done to make such behaviour more difficult for fellows like the Reitz boys, then we could be in more trouble than being just bored!
@Zoo Keeper. I will look for your article now.
Too long an article for this old hat stuff of the UOF.
Prof Jansen did the right thing and was called a racist and then a little later “one of us”.
Just read that The ANC does not consider Bobby Godsell (ex ESKOM) a racist. Geewizz, aren’t we happy? We are now sure that we will get electricity when we need it.
The CEO will concentrate on transformation while Bobby wanted special attention to technical issues. What would one need more in a vital technological company?
After only 25 years in SA, I am slowly becoming a racist through the daily shit put on my plate by the politicians.
Two DU students shortlisted for Rhodes scholars – As many as 5 Rhodes scholars were ed by The Rhodes Selection Committee, India under the chairmanship of N R Narayan Murthy in a low-key event in Delhi. 3 girls and 2 boys were ed from Kirorimal College, Delhi University; St. John’s Medical College,Bangalore; Governement Law College, Mumbai; St. Stephens College, Delhi University and NLSIU, Bangalore. The final round entailed an interview for nineteen shortlisted candidates of about 30 minutes each with eight key panelists including Narayan Murthy and others including previous Rhodes scholars.
Thank you Rachel for this insightful piece…
I sincerely hope that the people of this country (and in particular the commentators on TL) take note of your argument.
Reducing every single issue to race is not productive. This is not denying that sometimes issues relate to racism; however it obscures the true underlying causes of problems and detracts from finding mutually beneficial solutions. Instead I believe people like to play the ‘race card’ to compensate for their own insecurities, inadequacies, and shortcomings (both black and white).
I sincerely hope I live to the see the day that we as a country can get beyond this. I have seen glimmers of this in my interactions with fellow Mandela Rhodes Scholars. It can happen, and it can be done!
I work at an Open access university where we try and remove barriers to education and allow people into our programme with lower marks as well as sometimes less than great English. That being said we do not “[recognise] the validity of a “poorer English” when it came to marking scripts”.
We work with the students on composition and how to write and do our best to ensure they understand material. No favour is being done when student work is subject to dumbing down as an apology for the past or for present circumstances.
I applaud your attempt to look at structural issues beyond race as being more substantive.
Your mention of the Rwandan genocide and their use of language sadly reminded me of the Amakwekwere designation that resulted in the xenophobia we saw.
Sadly people like MuAfrika and Philipa want to see a Rwanda here. Will you be happy if you get it?
This issue has dominated the media for months now and no-one seems to mention the obvious. I suppose it would spoil the greatest racist debate and outrage in recent timew
Despite international best efforts of universities, fraternities, armies, clubs and secret organisations, to stamp out initiation or hazing, this practice continues unabated, wherever males, in particular, are grouped together.
Apologists would say that hazing creates a bond and fellowship amongst initiates, while critics decry its degrading and humiliating rituals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazing
Being forced to eat taboo food such as dog chow rates as a fairly mild hazing. I’ll bet that every one of the purpetrators had suffered far worse indignities during their own initiation to Reitz Res at UKOVS. Initial reports declared that the domestic workers had joined in this barbaric practice, with at least resigned acquiescence.These practices were systemically imperitive at Reitz
I dont condone the practice of hazing, but nothing I think or say is going to stop it any time soon.
The most unaccepatable aspect in this case was the difference in power between the students and domestic staff. But if they all were white, there may have been a slap on the wrist from purpetrators for crimen injuria or breaking UKOVS rules .
To blow it up into an international racial incident smacks of humbug and hypocracy on the part of polititians and media
I agree with the Zoo Keeper, Adams’ point is clearly illustrated by the above comments.
Phillipa, did you even read the entire article? …or just skim over every second paragraph?
Thanks for a very insightful analysis that seeks to go beyond the use of a single lens. I suppose an intersectional approach would allow race, class and other relevant units of analysis to be included in one framework. We would then understand better the interaction of social phenomena instead of trying to isolate one – which seems to be the dominant academic paradigm.
I particularly appreciate your reference to the economic factor in the text and the psychological factor in the subtext. Is your thesis available online? Also, I would like to forward you a very good article on transitional justice. The author clearly shows how the TRC’s almost exclusive focus on race obscures the fact that colonialism and apartheid were also a deliberate economic system designed to dispossess. I think the Khulumani court action focuses our attention on what was perhaps negotiated into the background?
And finally – my take on the Reitz pardon is that Prof Jansen erred in shifting the focus of analysis from the individual to the institution in an exclusive way. He should have used an intersectional framework/levels of analysis framework to capture the interaction between indiv, group, institution, and society – then he would have sequenced his steps differently. But maybe its not a bad thing that we now know exactly how wounded we still are and how much work still needs to be done on that score.
Hereunder a link to the article I referred to before:
http://ijtj.oxfordjournals.org/misc/terms.shtml
“Effects of Invisibility: In Search of the ‘Economic’ in Transitional Justice”
Zinaida Miller* * Visiting Fellow in International Studies, Brown University, USA. Email: zinaidamiller{at}gmail.com
How can it not be race? When all the people selected were black and some of these boys must have been raised by black nannies.What over time changes their attitudes towrda other people that are not like them. I think its the dominant social and even more dominant economic socialisation by the parents that corrupts them
I am shocked and disgusted every time I see this video clip. Without a shadow of doubt it is racist.
I was brought up to respect my elders, no colour was exempt from this.
I was thus shocked when at the age of 10 we moved from the Transkei to Johannesburg, the disrespect white children showed to adult black people and found myself more than often very unpopular for speaking my objection to this.
These four young hooligans should not get sympathy and should be locked up. Besides this, their parents should be questioned as to how they were brought up as the home is where racism starts.
What shocked me further was white students interviewed saying they did not see anything wrong with what was done. What is becoming of our society that they are not repulsed as I am?
Thank you, Rachel, for a penetrating and insightful article. Ostensibly about the UFS four, it touched with sensitivity on core issues of racism, transformation, identity and the disparity between rich and poor.
If only the public discourse could rise to such levels! Readers: the discussion here is not just about whether the four boys were racist. It’s about what the barriers to integration, transformation and advancement are in our society. How do we see ourselves in relation to others and what efforts do we make towards understanding their world view? And by “others” I don’t just mean those with a different skin colour or mother tongue – I also mean those whose lives are circumscribed by poverty or, depending where you’re coming from, unshackled by wealth.
Reading the responses, I’m reminded again that we spend too much time condemning each other and throwing insults, rubbishing opinions that differ from our own, slapping labels on people. As a society we tend to see the differences rather than the similarities. What we should be doing is looking for ways to break down racial, linguistic and economic barriers.
It would be encouraging if readers were more constructive and less dismissive, if we could have a real debate on nation building. Down with rabble rousers. Up with respect and understanding. Aluta continua!
This is the most intelligent piece I have yet read on TL! Congratulations, Rachel, you see past the obvious…
Yes, the four are racist. Did they do ‘it’ just because the workers were black? Or because this is their idea of fun? Had the workers been white, would the workers have refused to join in? Had white first-years been initiated similarly, would the 4 have been so harshly judged? The questions are endless…but should have been asked.
Their bigger crime, to my mind, is that their behaviour, no matter who they are or who it demeaned, was totally anti-social and depraved. They deserve punishment in some form. Preferably the one that used to be considered good for this sort of thing: cuts! And lots of them!
It is fair to say, I suspect, that were white students to try integrating into somewhere like The University of the North (does it still exist?) they would have some difficulties. And so vice versa is true. A friend of ours (white) is doing a medical degree in China because no university in SA would accept him. I so respect his choice.
People who take a single step out of their comfort zone must be ‘up for the challenge’. No one said it would be easy. But to accept the challenge and succeed, makes the rest of us so much more admiring of their courage.
@Lee van Zyl and @jspratt. I think many people are repulsed at the behaviour of these young men. And perhaps part of their inspiration was race/racism as you suggest. But what this article is trying to encourage us to do is to think about other structural factors that influence such behaviour. Like I said in this article, there is a lot of abuse that is heaped on people who are considered economically “less than” by both black and white people. Besides interrogating racism, maybe we should also interrogate the economically motivated snobbery that is becoming a plague in this country.
@Billy C. Thank you for the link, I will follow it up.
@Sarah Henkeman. Thank you for the link to the article. I will read it with great interest. I think I am always saddened by the fact that our analyses of many of our societal ills seldom interrogate the economic, psychological, religious and other such factors that influence our realities. I myself fall trap to this sometimes. If only we could be more cognizant of our own shortcomings.
I hope the article you posted will shed light on how we can effectively use an intersectional approach when it comes to matters like these.
Ps. My thesis is not available online but I could make it available to you if you gave me details.
Wow. this is the first really insightful thing I have read on this whole debacle.
Interesting take at things and I agree with you to a certain extent.
I think by now we all know that in SA the struggle is more economical that is about race. It just so happens that whites still owns 80% plus of the Economy and they end up defending what they believe is theirs and they feel threatened by the AA and BEE’s so it always end up being about race. But reality is it is more about the haves and have not’s. Let’s hear what many of the comments here are going to say about sharing in the wealth to avoid these racial rhetoric’s that are ongoing. Even Julius will learn to shut up once he is assured that we are all “willing to share in the economy of this country”, once we know that “Institutional racism” has been eradicated in corporate SA and in the economy as a whole.
@ Rachel
It was in response to a Chris Roper column, I think it was called “Forget Forgiveness”. He missed my point completely, I would love to know your thoughts on my comments and whether the point has any merit or otherwise in your view?
@Billy C. I think you are spot on in your assessment. Everybody should read your comment carefully without prejudice.
I also think that the Reitz 4 should be properly punished, not only for being guilty of the betrayal of trust, but mainly for being stupid (like so many university seniors are). And they must ask the forgiveness of the whole nation.
Interesting how everyone especially the so called “White Liberals” are entertaining your idea of forgetting about races but none of them is touching on the fact that the author mentioned that it is cause by inter alia economic and social status. How the heck do they expect it to go away and everyone to forget about it when they are not addressing the actual causes of it? None of these liberal comments are talking about ways of getting rid of racism, they just want to see it gone, how they can’t flippin say.
Rachel, this is a brave & likely accurate analysis. The challenge is to locate it sensitively in the current atmosphere which demands a black/white paradigm across every matter. I enjoyed evenr if I dont agree with all of it!
Rachel, you write with visionary skill. Which is why your thinking is so far ahead of present time.
@MLH: “Yes, the four are racist. Did they do ‘it’ just because the workers were black? Or because this is their idea of fun? Had the workers been white, would the workers have refused to join in? Had white first-years been initiated similarly, would the 4 have been so harshly judged? The questions are endless…but should have been asked.”
You say “yes, the four are racist” and then submit a list of questions which -if answered properly- could lead to a different conclusion to your statement.
Over and above, there are some more questions to ask such as : “did the staff enjoy the game at the time of the shoot, did the students did it because they were black or because they were “on hand” and willing participants (for a bottle of whiskey, remember)? and so the list goes on.
I do hope that the court case will give some answers. Hope you can wait for the outcome. I am sure Prof Jansen will.
I also recently watched the whole Reitz “racist” on You Tube.Debating whether the Reitz video is racist or not racist [ and attempting to redifine "race" and "racism" in the process} misses the point altogether.
When I watched this video these questions came to my mind.
1 Do we normally get a group of say 18-22 year old boys of whatever "race" playing with a group of women [of whatever race] who happen to be old enough to be their mothers? [the women all looked like they are in the 40 -60 age group]
2 Why did the women allow the boys to abuse them ? { In other words did the boys promise the women money or otherwise intimidate them into submitting to abuse?
3 Alternatively, were the women , who probably reached adulthood in the apartheid era merely intimidated by baasskap [submissiveness to whites or a belief in white superiority] and hence unable to tell the boys where to get off.
I find it very strange that no one seems interested in what the women have to say for themselves. Everyone seems to be fixated on the fact that the women ate food that had been pissed on instead of seeing the deeper significance of the whole saga
Rachel you have a point.Though we are afraid we might miss racial acts when they happen.To correct this, yes we need to start with the Infrastructures. That is very true.Talking will not help. True too that the 4 were on a Prank and fell in to a racial act.Hence the debates. Thanks for the well researched article!!!
Hi Rachel, you can send the thesis to the email address that appears on this mail.
@ Tlanch Tau – you say all commentators are entertaining the idea of forgetting about race. This is not so sir, my comment suggests that we look at the interaction of racial and economic oppression and its social, economic, political psychological, religious, etc. [at least that is what is suggested in arguing for an intersectional/levels of analysis framework].
I cannot speak for other commentators, but I cannot see how labelling people advances our understanding. I’m actually ashamed that I wanted to respond to your assertion by saying that I am neither white nor liberal – it reveals my own latent prejudice and it belies the fact that I regard race as a social and political construct.
My guess is that we are all trying to make a contribution – and we make mistakes while doing so – because we are human.
A nice piece of thinking, and something with which I agree, deftly put. However I am concerned by this deftness, the ‘necessity’ you felt in making an excuse for an enlightened position, in justifying that we need to look further than race. It is not you that is at fault in this, rather it is an indictment on the readership even of ‘thought leader’.
And so I am unsatisfied, that your obviously clear thought has to be expended in excusing the value of ‘not just reducing to race’ so much so that it is the focus of the article. It is galling that we cannot/do not/did not engage more with WHAT to do about the structure because we have to justify THAT we should do something.
I’m sure your thesis is a most interesting read, and I would enjoy a follow-up to this with suggestions of WHAT, instead of THAT.
@Rachel -w.r.t. you comment about the effective use of an intersectional approach – I think feminists like Patricia Hill Collins etc. give useful pointers. I’m trying to tack something together for my current studies … work in progress … a matter of complex problems requiring complex solutions in a world (led by academia in this) that’s fascinated with simplifying and therefore suggesting simple solutions.
@ Tlanch Tau “I think by now we all know that in SA the struggle is more economical that is about race. It just so happens that whites still owns 80% plus of the Economy and they end up defending what they believe is theirs and they feel threatened by the AA and BEE’s so it always end up being about race.”
Your observation is right: it is all about economy. SA is emerging from a B/W (80/20) society under apartheid to a Rich/Poor (80/20) society as all other societies in the world.
Redistribution of wealth is taking place in SA. Some of it regular, other “less conventional”.
Whites are the looser in this battle, blacks are predictable winners. Whites could gracefully step aside, enjoy what they have left or emigrate. Many have done so already. They do criticise -rightfully so- the bungles of the current government which happens to be strongly associated with “black” by their own admission in policies (BEE) and public statements.
Things could/would be a lot less “B/W” if the powerful government showed efficiency, work ethics and frugality in the delivery of promised services.
The current perceived societal stalemate seems to be: “W” has the brains, “B” has the power.
SA needs leadership on both sides of the divide to break this stalemate. The newly empowered “rich” blacks could contribute significantly in pacifying the predictable “W” looser in this process.
Currently, Zuma and his two princes do not help the process!
Thandinkosi Sibisi, you hit the nail on the head. I hope we get answers to your questions.
In reply to Rachel, I disagree as these are arrogant young white men, that were brought up with a superior attitude towards black people. This is my opinion finish and klaar!
I too am at UCT and wonder EXACTLY why there are these structural/institutional barriers that make it harder for (working class) blacks kids to get a EQUAL EDUCATION…language, the eurocentric culture etc…
If the issues are more structural than racial, then obviously we must ask why are these structural barriers exist?..Why are black students grievances regarding language not taking that seriously?..Why are they expected to ‘adapt’?….
Obviously they would argue that its about the ‘market’ and that they are competing internationally and blah blah blah.you know UCT right, OUTWARDLY ORIENTATED and not giving much of damm about chaos happening in this city above and beyond these leafy suburbs…We could argue that by and large these decisions are motivated by the (ACADEMIC) MARKET which i would probably agree with..
But is it not racist to deny the experiences and realities of black students? whilst that might not be the obvious motivation, isn’t eurocentrisim in the face of the destruction of the native Khoisan’s culture?..Isnt it actually racist, whilst being motivated by market forces, for these these old white men so insensitive to concerns that these black students have…So my actual question is Is it not in actual fact racist to deny the experiences and realities of black students by itself, even if your are motivated by other forces (market in this case)?…
The writer must learn to understand that the only crrect and scientific tools of analysis of the current and future South Africa entalis, in the main, race as the only historical instrument used by whites settlers to define socio, cultural and political conditions of which we continue to endure consenquences even today. So for Rachel, Hellen Zille and the company to contiue to discourage South Africans to analyse SA through race tatamounts to systematic racism, for the only thing such arguments does is to try and create guilty consiousness in those who are confronting racism head-on so as to shift all the blame to the current democratic order. The struggle of the African people to dismantle and finally defeat racist colonial and apartheid legacy is far from over – nothing concrete has been achieved so far except symbolic deracialization of South African society – change of hearts and action is still lacking, particularly on the side of whites. Evidence of this is wel writen across all sectors of or economy in terms of ownership of market shares with agriculture, manufacturing, mining, financial sectors being the worse hit in terms of racial inequalities
Thanks for a very thoughtful and brave piece though I also agree that Thandinkosi is spot on interrogating the racist conditions and histories that enabled this incident and others. But ultimately to deal with the current mess, a focus on race alone is not enough and the dangers are apparent enough in government’s current strategy of transformation. Surely transformation shouldn’t be limited to focusing on the representivity numbers project? Believe me representivity is damn important (yes, I’m black) but transformation should really be a re-humanising process too. Let’s be blunt, we need a bit of critical reprogramming in the core values of humanity and respect -all of us. There’s no transformation of any kind without it. So instead of remaining defensive and protectionist let institutions help develop more thoughtful transformation programs beyond narrow focus government ones. After all isn’t that part of their job? Or maybe I’m just being hippy…
Thandinkosi the laptop had a tag that spoke against intergration – Meaning the students believed in ‘separate development’ – ‘apartheid’
What more do you actually want. When a rapist rapes should we ask the victim if the sex was good, was the rapist handsome, did she find him sexually appealing. WHY DO WE ALWAYS HAVE THIS URGE TO SWEETEN AND MAKE RATIONALE ON ‘WHITE CRIMINALS’ (as we did with Joost and Hansie)
Would you say the same things if it were your mother?
The reason racism will not end is because often the ‘blacks’ who gain their voice and access to public platforms seize being African and become ‘blacks’ who are ‘GRATEFUL TO THE MASTER FOR THE OPPORTUNITY’ Why so much ‘darkies’ participate in diverting the debate on a racist act???????????
@MuAfrika. I understand your anger but I think your accusations need to be challenged. I am aware that there are black people who have gained voice and unfortunately use that voice to gloss over issues so as to gain acceptance in what they consider a superior culture or state of being. I don’t think that Thandinkosi (if he/she is black) or I are the people you refer to.
I have personally used my voice to raise issues of injustice that plague our societies – between black and white, rich and poor, elite and non-elite – and all the other dichotomies that we create to divide ourselves. I am not grateful to any ‘master’ and have often been ostracised for being too ‘militant’ about the sufferings of black people in our current context. So just because I choose to take a more nuanced approach to a matter does not make me subservient.
And for the record (and I hope my mother does not mind me using this as an example),my mom works as a care assistant who largely cares for old white people that call her a ‘nigger’ and abuse her more times than I care to remember. But calling or proving that a 70 year old man is racist will not help her situation. What would help is a security system that protects her from beatings and a health system that allows her to claim health benefits in instances when she is harmed (amongst other institutional interventions).
Kindness.
The point, well made – “The point, however, is that the regression continually to racial language to address such issues, while emotionally satisfying in some ways, tends to mask larger structural issues and processes that remain unchallenged. The point is that racial language has become too close to us to the extent where it has become the be all and end all of many a political and social debate. It simply does not allow us to think strategically but traps us in an emotional and angry cycle that limits our ability to get to the root of these matters — and the root is largely economic and political.”
Rachel
I have to agree that you are “disgruntled” as in frustrated which would explain your typical university-corridor argument about the Reitz four incident.
On your infrastructural hullabaloo:
Mind you that you gladly tell us what “Black learners would for example complain” about you fail to compare it to what white learners would equally complain about as a result of those “infrastructural” problems. Perhaps it is because these infrastructural problems according to your “weight of the evidence” are problems only particular to black learners. But why is that? Is it because there are too many of these black and fewer whites? Is it because the management of this UCT could not structure their curricula in such a manner that even black learners can get equal access to the available infrastructure as their white counterpart?
Clearly Rachel Nyaradzo Adams is not interested in staring the bull in the eye. Racism is real in universities like the UCT, UFS and UP. This is not news really. I am glad to note that you at least enjoyed your lucid moment when you affirm that UCT and UFS “they had not created nearly enough equal opportunity for some (shying away from saying “black”) learners to succeed”. Why is that the case ms Adams?
Remember wena Rachel that people are not stupid more so the kind you find in universities. They can see prejudice and they know what it is and they can express dismay at the sight of it. I have being on the
Hi Rachel, I agree with your analysis, and that it is important that at least in our own minds we begin to move beyound framing incidences and obstacles in racial terms (albeit that very often it indeed may be so). I wrote an analysis of racism in South Africa (titled Ignorance and Evil–http://www.amazon.com/Ignorance-Evil-Analysis-Racism-ebook/dp/B0047T7J8G/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2), and would like to include your article as an appendix if you would allow me.