Focusing on race alone risks overlooking other vital issues

THE story of Linda Steenkamp, the woman who sat in a cage in the back of a bakkie, reminds me of something that happened to me a few years ago.

I was about to do gardening at my home when I realised that an experienced pair of hands would do a better job than I would.

So I climbed into a bakkie and drove to the spot where men in need of odd jobs normally congregated.

If you are familiar with such situations you will know that as soon as your vehicle stops, one is faced with a frenzy of desperate men running towards you.

That’s what also happened to me, and so when the first job-seeker had safely climbed onto the back of my bakkie, I quickly drove off before others could join him.

But as we drove the 2km distance to my home the stares I was getting from other casual workers in my suburb made me realise that something was amiss.

It later dawned on me that they had taken umbrage with me – a black man – transporting another black person on the back of a bakkie.

I think I should count it fortunate that this incident happened before the social media craze had gathered force.

Today, anyone with a smart phone can spark a media storm with one perfectly timed picture.

In a sense, this is good for social activism, but there is also a downside. The public uproar that follows the story sometimes obscures important aspects about the story.

And while it said that a picture speaks a thousand words, on social media it can sometimes speak just one word.

When that word is racism, this often opens the door for vicious and nasty engagement.

There are similarities between my experience and Steenkamp’s story. Both contain two elements: power and ignorance.

In Steenkamp’s case, things are even more complicated because the power dynamic was manifested in shades of race, gender and class.

These were plainly evident in the video seeking to justify her choice to sit at the back of the bakkie. She kept referring to Johan Erasmus, the man who gave her a lift, as “baas” and also said, “I climbed into that cage myself because no one sits in front with umlungu (a white person).”

The Steenkamp family is understandably annoyed by the media attention this incident has brought them. But the attention is likely to be shortlived, fuelled temporarily by people who prefer to go for the low-hanging fruit of racism than attempt a deeper engagement of the issues affecting farming and rural communities.

The trouble is that when society rushes in to classify an incident purely as a manifestation of racism, the nuances and layers that often need uncovering are missed.

For example, if we dig into the power structure I have already alluded to we are presented with an uncomfortable reality.

Most of us know that placing a hitchhiker at the back of a vehicle is illegal, but many people do it anyhow and take comfort in the fact that it is not unusual.

We also know that the motive is not always a racial one but one of convenience and safety – for the driver.

So when we condemn Johan Erasmus for allowing a pregnant woman to sit in a sheep pen on the back of his vehicle, should we not, at the very least, consider that his allowing someone to ride on the back of a vehicle is something many of us are guilty of too?

In addition to condemnation, we must also credit Erasmus for his altruism. He willingly gave Steenkamp a lift from Zuur to Cradock, a distance of 65km that would have cost her a small fortune for transport.

I was for that reason shocked to learn that the farmer ended up getting death threats.

One has to ask, were those threatening him the kind of people who would actually extend themselves to do anything to improve the living conditions of someone like Steenkamp.

I felt that reaction was misplaced and perhaps also a compensation for our shortcomings in dealing with other problem issues affecting rural and farming communities.

Because it is these problems – deep poverty, the lack of proper services, a hobbling education system and the absence of opportunities – that are dehumanising to people like Linda Steenkamp, more than travelling at the back of a bakkie.

And if we ignore these problems, then all our other reactions are an impulse akin to survivor’s guilt.