Objectively Speaking

I wrote this piece because I was/am pissed about "racism", politics and our "education" system. Read it, give me your thoughts. (Note: I know some of you had issues leaving comments before cause you had to login, but I changed the settings so hopefully it works now:) Happy New Year by the way. Enjoy:


South Africa's matric results came out on the 4th of January. We achieved a 70 odd percent pass rate. If you celebrated and creamed your pants when that was announced, you're a dumbass and you're part of the problem. I hope that offended you. My second point of offense (to you) has to do with people forever more bitching and whining about how racism prevents them from getting certain jobs or living in certain cities. Get over it! If you feel that statement makes me a self-hating, model-c coconut please refer to the latter half of the third sentence of this paragraph.

Let me break down my two statements economically for you, since everyone in SA is a life taught economist. People go on and on and on about how racism is rife in certain parts of the country and they could never work there. I'll take Cape Town as an example since it was recently in the "news" regarding how racist it is. I have met many a black professional who has said to me "I could never work in Cape Town, there aren't any blacks there (especially in senior positions) therefore it must be racist." Hmmmm. Fair comments, but did you ever stop to think that black people leave places like Cape Town because they're chasing money in Joburg? Did you ever imagine that the large majority of blacks in SA aren't from Cape Town, THEREFORE they choose not to build their lives/careers there? No, you default to racism.

Now let's bring in the economics of the pass rate. People jump up and down like monkies when they see a 70% pass rate. Great, but what does that really mean? I'll tell you what it means: jack shit!

Granted, we broke the mystical 70% pass rate, but that was based on lowered standards. I quiver to think what the pass rate would look like if we used the tertiary standard 50% pass mark. Above and beyond that, the percentage which actually matters, the exemption rate (those who qualify for tertiary) is at 24%. That means, and follow closely boys and girls, a whopping 76% of our matriculants are walking away from high school either empty handed or with nothing more than a glorified piece of paper. Let me not even get into the fact that roughly 50% of kids who started Grade 1 with the class of 2011 didn't even make it to matric.

Now we all know that in South Africa you need one of two things to get ahead in life. You must either have a reputable qualification from a reputable institution, or you need to have contacts. I won't even get into work experience because that's a whole other kettle of fish.

So here's the bit where I need you to apply that life taught economic thinking of yours. Let's say you're in a position to hire (read empower) an individual for a summer internship, knowing full well that your aim is to maximize profit and efficiency for your business/company, so objectivity is key. You have Sipho, who goes to a "black school". He's top of his grade and he does this by following a ritual everyday. Go to school, come home and study. No TV, magazines or Internet because his parents can't afford them, and no friends because they're a distraction. On the other hand you have Mandla. Mandla goes to a former model-c school. He's an average student, but he is well read and up to date with current affairs. He comes from a middle income family so he can afford a good tertiary education - Sipho does not, and he was hoping to save his earnings from this job to pay his registration fees and work his ass off so he could get a bursary (but you don't know this). Given that typical interview questions can include things like: "What's your take on the death of Bin Laden?" or "Do you think it's fair for Iran to withhold oil?" or "What effect do you think the tolls will have on trade in Gauteng?", who do you think will answer the questions better/with more confidence? Now that you've answered that question, I doubt I'd be wrong in saying that's the guy you would hire 10 times out of 10. That means while Mandla continues to thrive, Sipho will lose faith in hard work and most likely end up in a political party siphoning money from the state.

So let me ask this: is it really fair to claim that certain areas are racist because there aren't any blacks living/working there? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying lets shut up about racism, but maybe we should stop defaulting to it as an excuse everytime instead of doing some introspection into ourselves and our people.

I will conclude by asking this, if we define racism as the systematic degradation of blacks by a group of individuals, objectively speaking, is it not those in charge of the education and uplifment of blacks who are not only failing at their jobs but also keep shouting racism who are the true racists here?