‘HAIR ATTACKS PART OF RACIST ATTITUDES’
Girls High pupils are challenging the idea that there is one way to be South African, and that’s a positive thing
THE racism row that erupted at Pretoria Girls’ High School this week was the result of outdated and musty codes of conduct prevalent at former Model C schools across the country.
And according to the Federation of Governing Bodies for SA Schools, similar unrest incidents should be expected unless there was a regular review of codes of conduct in order to provide an inclusive and appropriate set of rules.
Chief executive of the federation Paul Colditz said the re-evaluation of policies and regulations on a constant basis were vital to ensure they remain relevant.
“School governing bodies need to regularly revise their school’s code of conduct to meet society’s expectations,” Colditz said. “Every school should determine the core values of communities it is in.
“And the rules that result from that should be determined and guided by those values – they should be the overriding aspect,” he added.
Colditz said it was imperative for open channels of communication to be created to provide a platform for parents, teachers and pupils to engage in dialogue.
He expressed shock at the claims made by pupils at Pretoria Girls’ High School about being subjected to discriminatory and racist acts. “It’s strange and inexplicable that they claim that they were reporting their incidents, and these were not resolved by the governing body.
“Two to three pupil representatives should have been elected onto the governing body to ensure that issues raised by pupils are elevated to the board and given the attention they needed. Their presence should have provided a direct access to the board by the pupils.”
Following the unrest over a clause in the code of conduct about hair care, which peaked on Monday and was supported across various sectors countrywide, Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi engaged with the governing body, management, pupils and parents at the school.
An agreement was reached to suspend the school’s code of conduct, believed to be racist and out of date. It was the clause about black pupils having to straighten their hair that drove them over the edge.
Lesufi ordered that a new code of conduct be drafted by the school governing body and that pupils be a key contributor to the new document.
The MEC also launched an investigation into the conduct of teachers who were accused of perpetuating racism.
IN THE technology sector, they have a term for it. Disruptive technologies. By this they mean those innovations that shake the market by creating new commodities that consumers did not previously have or know they needed.
Disruptive technologies create new markets and often new classes of very wealthy people. Facebook is one example of such disruptive technologies.
The social sciences are not as adept at creating disruptive technologies as they are in creating disruption itself.
Unlike with the technology, disruption in society is often viewed negatively, sometimes unfairly so.
Long before Hegel, humanity has been identifying wrongs in their societies, seeking ways to eradicate those wrongs and create new ones in their place. We can be certain this cycle will continue for as long as humankind is still around.
What happened at Pretoria High School for Girls this week is an example of positive disruption. It might not look like that to the many who have for generations gone to the school and accepted the rules as they were.
The idea that South Africa belongs to all who live in it is often taken for granted, especially these days. It is hard for many of us to consider just how revolutionary and disruptive the thought must have been when it first hit the dinner tables and shebeen circuit in the 1950s.
Unfortunately, about 60 years many do not seem to fully get it.
When we say this country belongs to all who live in it, we mean exactly that.
We mean it belongs to the Muslim woman who prefers to wear a face-covering burka as it does to the young woman who chooses to wear what others might call a skimpy outfit but one that still covers enough to tick what is legally permissible.
So it must follow that South Africa belongs to those whose hair grows high as much as it does to those it grows long. To ask that others make their hair fit in with one or other standard is not to recognise the diversity that makes South Africa what it is.
By now we should be aware as South Africans that the rules of social etiquette are not universal. A firm handshake does not have the same positive weight everywhere. In some cultures, this sign of confidence is understood as a sign of unnecessary aggression.
We know, or should know, that the choice not to look the other person in the eye does not always indicate that the person not keeping eye contact is shifty. In some instances it is a show of respect.
Not along ago, eNCA reporters were trending on social media because one of their number said her story had not been flighted because she presented it while wearing a doek. It took their protest going viral for the station to rethink its position regarding what is an acceptable or unacceptable code of professional dress.
The defence that “this is how we have always done things” is a cop-out. It leads to stagnation and eventually to extinction of businesses.
Change is the only constant. It should be embraced instead of feared.
I am very sure that there are people still alive who believe that the now acceptable length of dresses for girls at Girls High is shocking because in their day any show of the knee amounted to an inappropriate showing of skin for a young lady.
Why then did we think that keeping hair in a particular way would be universally acceptable just because there was once a time when nobody complained about it?
The other group that I hope will have their thinking disrupted is those black parents who in their conduct and indifference have helped create the sad impression that to get ahead in life, one must necessarily adopt all things white.
Knowing what we know about our society, I am sure there are black children there who were surprised that anyone could have a problem with not being allowed to speak an African language because their own parents treat African languages as vulgar and refuse to speak it to their children.
A lot of what we call a lack of trans- formation happens because too many think their role is to fit in rather than to contribute to the widening of perspectives.
We rob those we associate ourselves with when we take from them but never give anything of ourselves back to them.
Those who think what happened at Girls High is a mark of how things are falling apart, must pull themselves together. Things are coming together.
South Africa is becoming the nation that it is – diverse.
Those girls at Girls High have disrupted the idea that there is one way of being South African. They have called the bluff of their parents who told them we were a Rainbow Nation and asked how come their colour was treated as inferior to the other colours of the rainbow. For that, we owe them a debt of gratitude.