By Jennifer Thorpe
I am white and I am afraid.
I am not afraid because I am white. I am not afraid because others are black or Indian or coloured. I am afraid because I am the survivor of crime in South Africa. I am afraid because I anticipate that I will have to survive more crime before my life is over. I am afraid because my life has been and is governed by reckless politicians, patriarchy among the leadership, racist and unequal apartheid policies, and fear of diversity.
A South African sought asylum in Canada. He was granted refugee status because he provided compelling evidence that his life was in danger, and that he was afraid. He used his race as an element of his explanation for himself as a target and in doing so ensured that South Africa once again became the target of international scrutiny. He didn’t cite his class or his gender. He didn’t cite his sexuality. He didn’t cite his religious beliefs or educational qualifications. He chose his race and placed this at the centre of his analysis, claiming that the government had not and would not be able to provide security for him. This action has been viewed negatively by the government, and has been viewed with envy by a number of South Africans of all colours who do not have the opportunity to escape a climate of fear.
He is a refugee, but what has he been saved from? He has not saved others from further crime in South Africa. His actions have done little to disseminate respect and love for difference, but have created difference as something to be afraid of. His action will create defensiveness on the part of the accused and fear on the part of other people who have not had the opportunity to flee. His action has not contributed to the lessening of my own fear because he is just another person who has refused to participate in his community and make a change where he could. He was a survivor of crime who could have lessened the suffering of others by providing a kind word of support, a shared smile of empathy and an embrace when one was needed.
He has not saved himself from disrespect based on skin colour. Refugees are the first victims of fear when economic conditions change. Perhaps a moderate place like Canada may be less stratified than other places but in times of scarce resources it is those whose roots in a country are not immediately evident who are the first to become scapegoats. Xenophobia is alive and well across the world and his could contribute to continued and deepened xenophobia against other people who are regarded as un-African or not quite South African enough.
Do his actions have any positive effects? I will put my neck on the line here in the hope that my statements are not seen as representative of an entire race, gender or population group. I think they could. I think that they could return scrutiny to South Africa, which has startling crime statistics and is a country with such a high incidence of rape it could be likened to sexual genocide. I think that scrutiny needs to be returned because crime cannot disappear while inequality is present. When most South Africans have little or no access to security, have little or no access to economic empowerment, have little or no access to savings, food and healthcare then the crime that this refugee feared will continue. When South Africans who have access to privilege, profit and property do not share, do not contribute in their community and continue to laugh when racist jokes are told then crime will not disappear. It is time for us all to take responsibility, to give back and to invest in others.
Desperate times breed desperate behaviour and I hope that his action will stimulate desperate and rapid action on the part of government to do something about crime rather than to sit over tea and complain about racism while looking out at their beautiful gardens through burglar-barred windows.
My name is Jennifer Thorpe. I am 24 years old with an MA in politics and a deep commitment to women’s rights. I am an activist who works for several NGOs while looking for a permanent job. I am a South African who feels the fear of crime and hates looking through burglar bars at the ocean.
@Jennifer Thorpe
Under apartheid, whites used FEAR and a Christian National Education system to justify their brutal oppression of blacks. Apartheid’s fear based policies resulted in blacks living under CONSTANT fear for many generations in their own land.
“I am white and I am afraid”
Nowadays, some whites (like you and a few other bloggers on TL) are using FEAR once again to propagate the myth that crime is directed against them. This victim hood serves a rallying cry. Muslim fundamentalists use this strategy very effectively to recruit jihadists. George Bush and his neo-cons were masters of this strategy and hoodwinked the American public into invading Iraq.
As wise Yoda would say “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Guess where you’re leading the “white victims” in this country to?
Its fear that promotes racial division. Now whenever whites whinge (sometimes legitimately), blacks feel justified in telling whites to emigrate to places like Canada and Australia who are constantly in need of immigrants, so the barrier for entry is pretty low.
We all understand that crime is our biggest problem and we desperately want the ANC to take decisive action rather than the lip service it gave under Mbeki – whom I might remind you, the majority of whites supported. Huntley’s lies hinders our progress and his actions should be condemned by our white DA party.The DA should condemn Huntley’s racist lies that could potentially damage our relations with Canada.
@Martin
Wish there were more like you in this country that can speak the truth in the interests of moving our country forward.
@John Carlisle
According to your extensive research(wtmb),crime is needs driven and you have the stats to support your point. I don’t disagree. The correlation between poverty and crime is very persuasive. But,
what do such stats actually reflect? That in SOME societies,(where there is no reasonable welfare system?)people resort to crime as the means to satisfy those needs. And so?
You are surely not suggesting that under such circumstances crime is either morally or socially acceptable? Like Ms Thorpe are you contending welfare state=crime-free state?
The decision to do “wrong” is separate and distinct from the need.
Am I to infer that you(like so many S Africans) justify crime as the means to an end,should a welfare system fail to deliver?
In regard to my reference of the middle east…and I take it that you have interviewed the Phillipinos,Indians,Pakistani’s,Bangladeshi’s to which I think you refer?(I have) The question must be answered as to why they sought employment there? And to those who have voluntarily returned for 2nd,3rd and 4th terms, their reasons for so doing?
…Security! IRT Ms Thorpe’s opening remarks about being afraid…there is no such fear among those imported workers. They in fact feel safer in the ME than in their respective countries of origin.
Welfare State RSA?
I’d rather belong to a herd of goats led by a lion than a pride of lions led by a goat.
“He has not saved others from further crime in South Africa.” So what? Nobody saved him from repeatedly being a crime victim. He’s looking after himself. I suggest you do likewise. It’s every man for himself in the new South Africa.
@ Azra – funny you should write that. Just yeaterday, I was speaking to the Matron around the corner who was grumbling about the number of white farmers who had left the Kokstad areas due to crime and land claims from the exhosa.
Her main beef was that these were the most helpful people who were always ready to give a helping hand on her families farm to the point where production was such that they sold through the co-op.
The money earned put her brothers and sisters through university.
With these farmers gone there is no one to help. The government does not care. She too said her family was better off during apartheid. Quite a surprising story
@Dave Harris
Perhaps, dear dave, if you had read past the first sentence of the blog instead of jumping on the boring aggressive bandwagon (which in my opinion is part of the problem) you would have noticed that my blog in NO WAY attempts to encourage notions of violence being directed at one race in particular. Instead I actually say
“I am not afraid because I am white. I am not afraid because others are black or Indian or coloured. I am afraid because I am the survivor of crime in South Africa.”
I know its hard, but read past the first sentence won’t you. Do us all a favour.
I was mugged walking from Park station to the bus station in JHB on Woman’s Day 1995. Was it because I was in JHB? Most probably. Was it because I was walking alone? Because I was as far as I can see the only white boy on the streets of JHB? When 4 armed men, one armed with a knife, asks for your wallet, you give it to them… Just a year before we had the ‘94 elections, and we were all still so positive…
But I am also afraid… Not because I am white and have been a victim of crime as well, but because I have 2 daughters, aged 4 years and the other 4 months. I am not afraid of my own life, but for theirs. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about them and their future here in the southern tip of Africa… Or their lack of one…
We live in a house with burglar bars inside and outside the windows – and they accept this as normal. They can’t play outside the house unsupervised, and cannot play outside the gate at all – and they think this is normal. We keep the house locked day and night, and yet again they think this is as it should be…
I want to give my children more than that, or soon they will accept fear, violence, paranoia, guilt, etc as normal as well… Or worse, they become mere statistics as well…
Jihaad
What ignorance do I spew? Name it or back off. As for offering solutions,my final sentence indicated support fot MMs Thorpe’s values. Or was that too subtle?
Basil,
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines are not in the Middle East.
I think the most decent and well-balanced comment on this article is by Martin(September 5th at 9:43 am) who offers a factual non emotion-riddled perpective.
Whilst we’re pointing fingers-let me throw a spanner in the works.
I grew up in Mmabatho, the capital of the former (and highly prosperous and efficient) homeland Bophuthatswana. Under Mangope’s rule, I was lucky enough not to experience some of the daily violence and racial tension like my friends from Soweto did for example. So if I get mugged, since I’m also black, who do I blame and to what do I attribute the misfortune? Apartheid (of which I know relatively little about) or the ‘other’ blacks? Please provide me with a scapegoat as well!
Moral of the story: People who are hungry will attack people who are not – food and money have no racial demarcation. If the current crime-spree was racially motivated, it would have begun the day after Madiba’s inauguration. The fact that everyone is a victim effortlessly disproves the ‘poor attacked whites’ theory.
We only have higher crime stats than Somalia for example because there are fewer well-off people there; not because there they have a lower white population.
The solution – eradicate the hunger felt daily by SA’s majority & raise their living standards to humane levels. Now that, is a whole new conundrum altogether but anything less is merely delaying the inevitable revolt by poor people globally,not just in SA.
@Jihaad
I agree, I don’t pose any solutions here. So some I could think of after you asked were:
1. joining an NGO/NPO/doing developmental work within your community. This means going to the places you might not be comfortable going and speaking to people you might not normally talk to.I’m not a big fan of simple charity, because what’s needed is more than just money.
2. Educate yourself and others about how you can help. Know your rights so that you can help to support the rights of others. Be aware of what’s going on in parliament, what decisions are being made and how these can affect you.
3. Take time our of your day, if you are brave enough, to join a neighbourhood watch.
4. Talk with your children about diversity of race, gender, class, culture, sexuality, religion and any other exciting differences between people. Talk to them in a way that makes difference something that they can see is exciting, beneficial and not something that should be feared.
Off the top of my head, i can think of many more solutions. Perhaps you should start working on some of your own that would work in your space, your time, and your community.
Ehm…did you just say he provided ‘compelling evidence’? Wow – newspaper articles without any context are compelling evidence!
I’m a final year law student and I can tell you that the evidence he tendered is not compelling at all – I have studied the Law of Evidence you know! The tribunal that entertained his nonsense was half-asleep – plain and simple.