The privileged must step in to reverse societal inequalities

IN RESPONSE to J Cunningham’s letter, “Obsessed with race” (Cape Times, November 26). He asks: “Why is our country… still so obsessed with race?” Easy. Race still determines the divide in our society to a large extent. Summed up simply: race determines privilege.

The privileged, in the main, are white and the underprivileged, to a very large extent, are black. Every day in our country there are incidents which bear out this truth. Of course, there are exceptions, but let us stay with the general argument.

He asks how it is better to talk today about race than in the days of apartheid. The latter was part of an institutionalised discriminatory society the UN declared “a crime against humanity”. The first reference alludes to the institutionalised policy called transformation in a democratic society. So the one must be better than the other, surely?

So what then is transformation meant to resolve? In the case of the “silks”, that the number of “silks” reflects a more equitable demographic of the country as is presently the case. Why? Because at present that demographic is skewed towards whites. Given our history of racial discrimination (still very much with us) it is incumbent on all of us to redress this imbalance in all walks of life. This is where black empowerment comes in: it is in the frontline to effect that change.

And quality must not suffer as a result of transformation. So it is a twin challenge: change the demographics and keep (or enhance) the quality so that appointment on merit is not a doubt. The whole legal fraternity must share the responsibility to bring this about.

What is absent, and this is where we have a very serious problem, is a systematic implementation across our society that avoids the pitfalls of inefficiency, nepotism and corruption. The intention remains important and necessary; how it is done is the challenge. Damning the whole lot is, at best, unhelpful, at worse, destructive and counterproductive. And it smacks of privilege and a holier-than-thou mindset, which we could do without.

On the concept and question of race. Yes, it is true that race it is not a biological fact; unfortunately, it is a social construct which has acquired a truth because of people’s experience of it down the ages. It was, among others, Immanuel Kant who put the question of race, more specifically, the racial superiority of the whites, into mainstream European thinking.

If we remember, it was by way of justifying the subjugation of the other races elsewhere in the world, whom he despised. That discrimination has been wonderfully exposed and debunked by academics such as Nina Jablonski and yet it still sits with us today. It does so in unsubtle ways (such as the colour of a bench of “silks”) and subtle ways (such as when your child is refused access to a good school because she does not reside in the catchment area (the school conveniently preserving the effects of apartheid for the privileged).

What Cunningham said for his bogeys – black empowerment and transformation – today, should really be said of apartheid then: “They have created unnecessary social divisions, gross inefficiencies, driven away a generation of bright minds and submerged the whole government edifice in a sucking swamp of corruption.”

And yet, the societal structural change necessary to reverse institutionalised inequality has to be brought about – it will not happen on its own. Just look around you. The ongoing challenge is how. And here the privileged, with all their expertise, all their connections, all their resources, can and must step in to help, not step away and criticise. Mark Jacobs