Facing up to racism today
IAM AN ADDICT… a Facebook addict. There, I said it! No other social media platform can provide the range of “entertainment” quite like Facebook can.
I can find out about births, deaths, birthdays, marriages, divorces and so many other things at the touch of a button: it’s the best reality show.
As an academic, however, my interest is not limited to the entertainment value. I’m acutely aware of the inherent dangers and challenges of Facebook in terms of threats to our privacy, as I am aware of how people have been taken to task for their unfortunate postings.
It’s no surprise that several academics have published papers warning that Facebook and Google are the world’s new superpowers and are taking over our lives.
There are other dangers as well. We should always be aware that there are some dangerous and unscrupulous individuals out there who prey on unsuspecting victims.
There are horrific stories of paedophiles using Facebook to target unsuspecting children on the basis of proud parents posting pictures.
It does not take a genius to figure out your address, which school the child attends, what work you do or, in the case of boastful people, when you are travelling or doing your hair.
There are both unseen and obvious dangers. People have suffered real consequences for their utterances. I know: I was kicked off a food group for posting a picture of an empty white plate with the caption: “Isn’t this beautiful?”
It seems that the group admin did not take kindly to nudity or racism in the midst of their politically-correct food porn. I was devastated and didn’t eat for a week. It was a shock to my system!
Somehow, my simple empty white plate was offensive in the presence of pots and pots of meat-flavoured oil curries covered with copious handfuls of dhania or, as the foodies insist, “garnished with coriander”. Suddenly everyone is a Jamie Oil’iver!
And while on the subject of meat-flavoured dishes, what’s with all those selfies? Talk about mutton dressed as lamb or old poultry parading as spring chickens!
I don’t think that any amount of garnish is going to transform Highway Sheila into Aishwaria Lekshmi.
But even though we ignore traditional wisdom by worrying about what was cooking in someone else’s pot, Facebook can be quite educational and informative, and, if you are a student of life, it can be a great place to observe human behaviour.
For example, I learnt new words like “gawjus” and “devine”.
More recently, I learnt that some people just don’t learn. Despite so many examples of people losing their jobs because of racist posts, you still get the odd individual who makes a racist statement. In this case, it was Rajesh Gopie ranting about the behaviour of the rioters at Moses Mabhida Stadium and referring to them in a derogatory, racist manner.
Didn’t Rajesh know that Zapiro and Penny Sparrow were roundly criticised for using the same reference?
Perhaps let’s break this down again. It is racist to refer to African people as monkeys. We can all accept that, but do we know why this is racist?
Well, the short answer is that the so-called sophisticated Europeans believed that anyone who was not like them was not human.
The European colonists based all their interactions with those who were not like them as being less than human and, as such, hardly deserving of respect. With this in mind, they could destroy whole nations, steal their property and even buy and sell them.
This belief was not exclusively reserved for Africans.
These colonists destroyed indigenous people all over the world, from Canada to New Zealand. They even destroyed people in India, and the reality is that many of the Indian community in South Africa are essentially here because our forefathers were considered less than human.
It took more than a century for us, all of us, to enjoy the status of being full citizens. It seems so unreal to accept that all South Africans were emancipated and had our humanity restored in 1994.
Those with longer memories will remember the derogatory terms that were used in reference to the Indian community. So we owe it to ourselves and to our fellow citizens to communicate with the same dignity and respect that we wish to be accorded to ourselves.
Facebook can be unforgiving and brutal. I don’t think that Rajesh quite realised how eagerly people wait for racist comments. It’s like sharks scenting blood in the water!
It is also the opportunity to sound off on someone else and the chance to act holier-than-thou.
The general thread was that he should be punished because what he said was, in the words of a so-called community leader, “unforgivable”.
I found it a bit strange for a Hindu religious leader to say anything is unforgivable. It seems that the emotions were running high.
The fact is that Hinduism is replete with examples where animals are revered and even serve as avatars for divine beings. Lord Vishnu took on the form of a boar to save the Earth from the deluge.
A boar is a wild pig. The use of the term “pig” comes with many derogatory connotations. Similarly, Hanuman is affectionately known as the “monkey” king.
The point I am making is that we live in a highly symbolic and complex world where there are many different and contesting connotations to a single word. The fact that one interpretation is privileged over others is in itself a testimony to the power of racism over our lives.
There must be a more nuanced discussion about racism if we are to turn the tide. Personally, I do not find Rajesh’s comments unforgivable, but what I do find unforgivable are the so-called community leaders who can condemn so easily but who have yet to come up with any strategy to address this disease of racism.
It’s easy to condemn and destroy, but very difficult to understand and heal – or, as I learnt from Facebook, to err is human and to forgive is “devine”!