Blacks can not be racist
Racism might not be a trending issue in public discourse currently but it is a permanently topical issue in our country because of its historical significance and due to that history, racism is an everyday reality for black people. For quiet sometime now I have been increasing appalled by even the slight suggestion that a person is racist or even acted in a racist manner. I have heard of this phenomenon on the media, social media and even members of parliament (both black and white) have condemned white as well as ‘black racism’. But the question is how? How can a black person be racist?
The argument advanced by proponents of ‘black racism’ relies on the premises that according to the dictionary racism is discrimination based on the colour of a person’s skin. Unfortunately in certain cases the dictionary simplifies the meaning of the most complex of words in such a way that it creates more misunderstanding and in cases like this, it creates more ignorance. Racism is not mere discrimination, but like patriarchy, racism is a social system. To discriminate is one thing, to systematically oppress and subdue an entire race for generations is another. Skin colour was used by the founders of racism as a basis to systematically dominate a particular race economically, politically and socially. But which particular group was this?
Anti-Semitism is a social system aimed at dominating particularly Jews. Sexism or patriarchy is aimed at dominating particularly women. When we take it to the ideological debate of capitalism versus communism, it is worth noting that in capitalism it particularly the working class and poor who are dominated. On the other hand in Communism it is the capitalist class or the bourgeoisie who are dominated. Hence racism equally was created to dominate particularly black people. There is not historical evidence that black people have ever created a social system which dominated white people.
Black Economic Empowerment and Affirmative Action are mere reversal policies but as many black people have learned these policies are insufficient to deal with a systematic racism prevalent socially and economically today. As the Minister of Labour has revealed recently and throughout her term of office, there is a lot of gatekeeping in cooperate South Africa by predominately white males who occupy most senior positions. In the past 20 something years the government have put policies in place to ensure transformation however these policies can not measure up to the resistance against such transformation by the economically dominant race. Thus economically the above mentioned policies are merely bringing an assegai to a gun fight.
Although black people cannot be racist, I do concede that they can be prejudice. This prejudice is based on a perpetual state of being dominated and being subjecting to some of the worst atrocities mankind has ever seen, from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade to Colonialism till today’s imperialism. My sister Mbali Nkosi perfectly explained to me that black anger is premised on what most white people has done and continue to do. Newton’s third law of motion puts it that ‘every action has an equal yet opposite reaction’. There is no tranquil manner for a racial group to handle close 400 years of oppression across the world.
Nevertheless Nelson Mandela got it right when he preached for blacks not to be consumed by hatred. A bloody revenge will not solve the problem of racism or those of poverty, unemployment and equality. It is only a united South Africa that can attempt to solve these problems plaguing our country. However, our beloved icon also got it wrong by putting reconciliation before justice. When you live in the most unequal society in the world you realise that a predominately poor dominated race cannot run to give forgiveness to the race which has dominated it for generations until now. On the other hand why would the dominant race even want your forgiveness when they own most of the land and wealth of the country? True reconciliation can only be achieved on the basis of equality. True equality can only be achieved on the basis of justice.
It is not with pride and joy that I refute the opinion that a black person cannot be racist. The harsh reality is that racism is the foundation on which this country and its economy are built upon. The only racial group that can be racist is the racial group that has benefited from racism as a social system and dominated the other till it in a perpetual state of paralysis. How then can black people be racist when they have never dominated another racial group? I then put it to you that as much as a Jew cannot be anti-Semitic; women cannot be sexist and a sheep cannot eat a wolf- a black person cannot be racist!
