Whites need consequences

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they “know and understand” black people.

After all, everything that South Africa is today is due to their presence and hard work at the southern tip of Africa, as the first-time author Ferial Haffajjee, argues in her essay book, What If There Were No Whites in South Africa?

However, when a black cultural figure like Somizi Mhlongo, or any other black person for that matter, makes a remark that focuses on white attitudes or highlights white racism, they are immediately attacked by critics and detractors urging them to justify their “racist” comments or explain themselves.

When you are black, you are taught to count your words when you speak about white people.

You have to prove you know what you are saying. At the end, if you cannot justify your sentiments, you will be forced to apologise.

In South Africa, white people are not interrogated about what they do or don’t know about what they talk about. It is enough for them to go out in the streets to demand #ZumaMustFall, #ANCMustFall or liken black behaviour to that of monkeys.

Embedded in this idea is the racist assumption that white people know everything simply because they are white.

It does not matter that they have never met or enjoyed friendship with blacks, for instance, but their right to make sweeping statements about them is expected not to be an issue.

Does anyone know if someone like estate agent Penny Sparrow or economist Chris Hart has a black friend or been exposed to a black community except through what they see in the media?

Yet they are white people who are not used to having their remarks and observations about blacks interrogated.

Ironically, it is black people themselves who give the power and authority to white people to have the final word on things that pertain to what Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga calls the “nervous black condition”.

They will overreact to being called “monkeys” as if white opinion defines who they are.

The latest development is that more than any group, it is black people who allow white people to define who they are.

Even white activists set and define the agenda for them on the new frontiers for struggle in education, health, the environment, economics, arts and elsewhere.

As a consequence of this growing pattern, whites have, slowly but surely, resumed leadership positions in the black struggle and have been elevated to authority figures on black experience and contemporary history: Right2Know, Section27, Anti-Corruption Watch etcetera.

At the risk of sounding racist, if white people really want to help support the black struggle, they must first address themselves on the issue of white racism, colonial land dispossession and economic inequalities.

More than any other group, white people have grossly benefited from the legacy of colonialism of a special type that has seen most of them with large pieces of land, inheritances, wellpaying jobs and relatively good middle-class lifestyles that enable them to eat out at restaurants almost every night.

It is most unthinking and careless of black people that, 21 years into freedom and democracy, they are allowing whites to ascend to positions of power and authority.

We might fool ourselves into saying we have witnessed the resurgence of Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness philosophy of black pride and self-assertion with the advent of the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall movements.

The image that lingers is of white students coming forward to protect black students from police violence.

The best way to refute white racism is for blacks to ignore what whites say, for it is based on ignorance.

Also, the whites were quick to join their so-called black comrades in storming the citadel of black political power that is Parliament. Without legitimate political power, blacks are nothing and have nothing.

Frankly, there is no more effective way to cripple black power than to undermine the legitimacy of a blackdominated Parliament.

A little upfront interrogation is needed here. This will teach a lot of whites to think before they say anything or act.

While one appreciates the right to freedom of expression, it would be a good thing to encourage every citizen – irrespective of their race, background or political creed – to think very hard before they say anything or act in any way. What is the ultimate objective? It is the absence of pressure that makes it easier for whites to think that they can get away with anything. But they should be compelled to examine their complicit role in perpetuating white hegemony and economic domination.

Whites in general lack the awareness and conscience more than any other group about the adverse impact of racism, colonial land dispossession and economic inequality and how this impedes nation-building and social cohesion.

Blacks must be encouraged to assert themselves and carry on with creating a better and brighter future for themselves and those who are willing to live in harmony with them.

It is not exactly their business to seek to teach whites not to be racist. That is something whites must do for themselves.

There will be no nationbuilding and social cohesion until whites deal with racism, the land question and economic inequality.

Even the National Social Cohesion Summit held in Kliptown, Soweto, in 2012 established that the biggest stumbling blocks to social cohesion were racism, economic inequalities and spatial divisions.

Luckily, in many instances, black people have begun to think critically about the pervasive nature of racism in the country 21 years after democracy and freedom.

They are increasingly demanding that whites tell where they stand on the issues of racism, land dispossession and economic inequality.

Will whites who are unconditionally opposed to colonial land dispossession, economic inequality and racism, please stand up?

Memela is a journalist, writer, cultural critic and public servant. He writes in his personal capacity.