Read the Bill of Rights and then redraw the lines

The exhibition It’s a Fine Line demands a re-examination of our own racism and sexism, writes Zak Yacoob

THE power of art lies in its ability to unite the past, present and the future. Politics cannot — and neither can constitutions.

Art must never be underemphasised — because it asks questions. It says many things to and for us. It brings change and gets us to change. And that is precisely why art in apartheid South Africa was not particularly well regarded.

When people painted the “wrong” things and said the “wrong” things and did the “wrong” things, they were ruthlessly stopped. I recall many works of art that contributed to the achievement of our democracy in many ways, instilling courage, determination, insight and purpose.

Everyone would like to say with almost platitudinous ease that we have had 20 years of democracy, that we have achieved a great deal and that, although we have much more to achieve, we can be quite comfortable, without having to ask too many questions.

In the process of taking stock today, we need to look at the dreams and hopes of all those who have gone before and to examine our constitution and determine how far we have come.

The multimedia exhibition titled It’s a Fine Line asks the question: How fine or not fine is the line between where we should be and where we are? How far have we really progressed?

And what the exhibition does is ask you to confront the question and examine the hopes and dreams of all our people — past and present — and our constitution.

Ultimately, after evaluation, we have to concede that our societal values are not “fine”.

Our constitution says that everyone is equal, yet 95% of the people in our country believe that women are inferior to men. Indeed, 95% of wom- en believe they are inferior to men.

In their hearts, 95% of the people in our country are more racist than not.

There are lots of people who merely talk about racism.

But in my view we have to accept that 95% of the people in our country believe in their own racial superiority at one level or another. There is no modesty.

There is an elite, a small elite, of 5%, who believe and think a little bit differently.

A well-known black politician, for example, said once — and everyone laughed at him — that he would choose to have a white lawyer represent him because white lawyers are better. And you know, there are too many black people who oppress themselves when they think that whites are better than they are.

Our constitution says everyone is equal, that gay people are equal to everyone else. Yet in our country 95% percent of people believe that gay people live in sin. They genuinely believe this.

There is and always has been a huge disconnect between the values of our constitution and the values of our society. We need to change that.

We need to change that by first looking into ourselves.

I was a great racist and a sexist once. I have had to work very hard to get over in my own heart the problems of racism and sexism. Now, even today, sexism remains a problem. I have to admit to all of you that I still struggle with women and thinking of them as equal.

We have to admit these things to ourselves so that we can work at correcting them.

It is easy to say you are nonracist and nonsexist. But to be these things and to embrace these values, we must first confront our own prejudices. We must study the Bill of Rights, understand it, embrace it, question ourselves and ensure that ultimately we ourselves live and embrace the values of our constitution.

This is precisely what the works in the exhibition — the drawings in particular — ask us to do. And if we cannot do so, we cannot ask anyone else to.

I understand and warn that it is going to be a huge struggle.

And the next step is ensuring that we start working with everyone else to engage in the same process because the constitution did not create an equal society merely by its birth. The constitution provided for us a launching pad from which we could persuade everyone to respect every other human being as equal. Indeed, we have been given a duty by the constitution to contribute to achieving that society. So what do we need to do? We need to persuade ourselves. We need, all of us, to read the Bill of Rights every day.

I wonder how many parliamentarians in our country know the Bill of Rights — and I ask you the question straightforwardly. I read, in my own mind, clauses of the Bill of Rights virtually every night. How many of you understand the importance of dignity, equality and freedom? How many of us understand the importance of humanity in our constitutional democracy?

So let us read the Bill of Rights and embrace it. Let these works of art enable us to embrace it. Then let us start an important social movement.

If in 10 years’ time I can stand up in public and say that only 80% of the people in our country are racist and that only 80% of the people in our country are sexist, I think we would have done a wonderful job.

Let us all embrace our constitution for the better of our nation.

Yacoob is a former justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. This is an edited version of the speech he made at the recent opening of the exhibition It’s a Fine Line, presented by Constitution Hill, in partnership with the Ichikowitz Family Foundation, at The Old Fort, Constitution Hill, in Johannesburg

I have to admit that I still struggle with women and thinking of them as equal