RACISM IS NOT ABOUT INDIVIDUAL ATTITUDE,BUT ABOUT GROUP POWER!#racism #justice

 RACISM IS NOT ABOUT INDIVIDUAL ATTITUDE,BUT ABOUT GROUP ECONOMIC POWER!.

South Africa is one of the countries that continue to be haunted by the spectre of racism almost three decades into the democracy. The spectre of racism is showing itself on multiple fronts e.g economy,social life,and even in sports. This week the country was greeted by visuals of a young white man in his twenties,the young white man is captured in a video referring to the Economic Freedom Fighters as the "Kiffers",to those who do not know the Economic Freedom Fighters is the third biggest political party in South Africa and it is mainly Black in its make-up and posture. Lot of people have correctly come out to condemn the white young man,however his actions are a reflection of a deep seated problem of white racism in South Africa and ofcourse the world in general. I mean we are talking about a young man who is in his twenties atleast,this is someone who did not live or grow up in the era of legal Apartheid,so why would he behave in this fashion,why is he carrying these prejudices against Africans?.

Now let's attempt to dissect this issue and dig deeper.Racism is a product of Colonialism and Apartheid which reduced Africans to non-human beings and elevated Europeans(Whites) into a status of some God on earth.Colonialism and Apartheid were legal systems of violent dispossession of the land of the Natives and cultural annihilation and obliteration of the Africans through religion,colonial education,mass media,ect. One of the key pillars of the Colonial project was at the Economic level which altered the power relations as it relegated Africans into slaves and sellers of labour,while elevating the Europeans(Whites) into the masters who owned the means of productions. Unfortunately the 1994 project has done little to reverse this injustice . It is this failure by the 1994 project to reverse the injustice of Colonialism and Apartheid which has led to the continuation of Colonialism and Apartheid albeit in a private space.

White people continue to dominate the economy of this country,they continue to enjoy the wealth which is build on the back of slavery and exploitation of Africans.White people do not even make 10% of the country's population yet they dominate own more than 80% of the country's economy. No words can be enough to justify this . This right here is the source of the continued white racism and arrogance. We ought to understand that racism is not a question just a question of individual prejudice and attitude towards another race. No ,it is much bigger than that it about the subjugation and domination of one race over the other and this is enabled by the economic domination. Hence Black people can never be racist because as Black people we do not have the economic power to subjugate other races. This simply means the race question has been misunderstood or misdiagnosed in South Africa which explains why 30 years since the don of democracy Black people continue to be victims of White racism.

Misdiagnosing a problem simply means whatever solutions you come up with are false solutions e.g social cohesion, reconciliation ,ect. It is even worse because somehow the victims of White racism are now being burdened with extending a hand of forgiveness and reconciliation to the people who continue subjecting them to racism and all manner of abuses. How are Black people supposed to forgive and reconcile with people who have not apologized,people who have not paid reparations for the crime of dispossession ?. The only thing white people have offered is that "STOP LIVING IN THE PAST AND MOVE ON",my question is move on to what when you continue to enjoy the benefits of ill-gotten wealth and continue your racism?.

If we are serious about addressing the question of white racism,we must start from the original sin which is the dispossession and then move swiftly to the return of the land and the economy into the hands of the Natives(Africans). Anything short of that is just an academic exercise ,an exercise in futility !.

By

Teboho Sekhosana

Political and Social Activist

0844361494

sekhosanateboho9@gmail.com