So, my other tweep Obi_Mike_Dexter (@Oobakeng) requested I write something more "tangible", so here it is. It's quite topical, but I believe it's relevant. It's a bit long, but I rate you'll like it. Enjoy:
What is racism really? Is it people looking down on you because of the colour of your skin? Is it your boss not letting you take on projects because you’re black and THEREFOR you are incompetent? Is it people rolling their eyes at you when you go up to present or offer a suggestion at a staff meeting because, well, what do black people know? This it would seem, is the post-94 brand of racism that’s being bandied around our “Rainbow Nation”.
Julis, his ANCYL cronies, senior COSAS members and certain ANC members and their tenderpreneur buddies run around, inciting furor in the masses of poor, black South Africans making statements like “We must declare an economic war on the white capitalists and burn down their businesses if they refuse to give us our dues” and crying foul every time someone questions their lavish lifestyles. “Is it because I’m black that I’m not allowed to live in a Sandton mansion or drive around town in a luxury German saloon? After all, I don’t own these things, the bank does, right?” Right.
My personal view, in response to the question I posed at the start of this piece is that the so-called “racism” we experience as described above is nothing more than ignorance. Stupid, idiotic, narrow-minded ignorance. The worst thing about it though, is that we as black people perpetuate it. When we sit in staff meetings with answers to questions or really pertinent points to raise but don’t, we perpetuate it. When we don’t put our hands up to take on projects that would showcase our skills and talents, we deepen the perception that blacks can’t do anything. When we mimic the cries that the media and the “opposition” parties are after our politicians “just because their black”, we further tarnish our image in the eyes of “the others”.
We need to realize that the majority of our leaders are of the mindset best described by a Smuts Ngonyama quote from a few years back: they “didn’t join the struggle to be poor.” As a public, surely, we need to at some stage wake up and realize that regardless of the reasons people are pointing out fraud and corruption, the fraud and corruption is the issue at hand, not the colour of the perpetrators’ skin. Is a murder less of a murderer because he is black? I would like to think not. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t wish to deny our political struggle icons and leaders, present and past any privileges or luxuries that may come with their positions, but the air of entitlement that they have and are instilling in the new leadership is scary.
To hear an early twenty-something year old talking about “I deserve this, and the government owes me that” is a problem. For a twenty-something year old to be going on about the oppression and racism he has to deal with every day at work speaks to me of a nation headed fast into the obscurity and self-destruction that has plagued so many once great African nations. This attitude, this sense of entitlement is what leads to corrupt, fraudulent, ineffective BLACK people. How can anyone ever create wealth and opportunity if they are of the mindset that they deserve it? On what basis?
I say we, as a people, need to get up off our asses and say enough. Not with our feet, not with our mouths or placards, and definitely not through violence and vandalism. We need to say enough through our actions. Next time you have something to say in a meeting but are afraid the “other people” will look at you funny because you’re black, say it anyway. Prove them wrong. Next time a project comes up within your community or business, don’t sit back because you are of the notion that “they” will look down on you, volunteer yourself. Prove them wrong, and in the process learn from the experience, grow yourself as a person so you can move onto bigger, greater things. Finally, the next time you think of uttering the words “you’re attacking him and his riches because he’s black”, in defence of your so-called leaders ask yourself, “am I really helping the cause, or am I just perpetuating the stereotype and in effect, promoting the racism?”
I agree with you. I also feel that we as race need to step away from the "entitlement" and "previously disadvantaged" mindset and start looking at life and other aspects from a brand new lens. I think the fact that there is a lot of people who feel like they deserve certain things without actually having to work for them allows negativity and laziness to seep in. but also on the other hand, I do feel that black people who know better, are constantly doing the work and white people aren't meeting us anywhere or anyhow, very few white people are open to change, and those that have accepted change are rare, or they forcefully accepted the change. I think that at the end of the day, until we actually decide to move forward and just stop acting like we live in the past or that a race is superior or inferior to another, nothing is ever going to change. young black people are still going to act like they are entitled to a better economic stance because they are previously disadvantaged and stuff...
ReplyDeletethe biggest part of this would be educating the masses, we as a people tend to see the easy way out as the best way to a better situation, but until that is sorted, people will continue to sit in meetings and not challenge themselves, people will continue to use lame ass excuse that can only be held valid for so long.