SA NO PLACE FOR MODEL MINORITIES

IN MY more than three score years and 10, I have been referred to as black, non-white, Indian, Asiatic, a charou and, quite derogatively, a few times as a coolie.

But not once was I called a minority. A plain and simple “South African” will do just fine for me, thank you.

I raise the issue after reading a fascinating book by Vijay Prashad titled which takes a penetrating look at the challenges and complexities citizens of the Asian diaspora in the US face.

Prashad, who pulls no punches in his provocative work, recalled a question the renowned sociologist and civil rights activist, WEB du Bois once posed to his fellow African Americans more than 100 years ago. How does it feel to be a problem? Du Bois was referring to how most white folk in the US at the time tended to treat black folk as if they were themselves a problem.

Intrigued by Du Bois’s question, Prashad decided to turn it on its head by asking Asians in the US:

How does it feel to be a solution?

Prashad was challenging the perception held by many Asians that they represent a “model minority” in the US and they are both inherently successful and pliant.

It spits in the faces of thousands of leaders who fought so valiantly to rid our country of racism

He also probes what factors have helped perpetuate the stereotypes.

The issues Prashad raises are seemingly not limited to just the Asian diaspora in the US.

For instance, I was extremely disturbed to read a newspaper report last week about an organisation that called a public meeting to warn Indians, whites and coloureds against “black African racism”.

The organisation is called the South African Minority Rights

Equality Movement (Samrem), run by a local magistrate, Ashin Singh. It pretends to be fighting for the rights of Indians and other so-called minority communities who, he claims, are being “oppressed” by the ANC government.

Singh is entitled to exercise his right to free speech, and to organise people against any perceived injustices or discrimination.

But when he spews out inflammatory rubbish about minorities being oppressed simply because they are hard-working and intelligent, unlike their black counterparts – as he was reported to have done last week – he is on dangerous ground.

To propagate such Aryan-like myths is no different to what the architects of apartheid, like Hendrik Verwoerd and John Vorster, did to hold onto white minority rule for so long.

Such attitudes serve only to undo all efforts to promote non-racialism, social cohesion and nation-building in our country, and also spits in the faces of thousands of leaders from so-called minority communities who fought so valiantly to rid our country of racism.

No one is saying there aren’t people with racist tendencies in the black community, but that does not render all black people racists.

By the same token, it would be patently wrong for anyone to judge Indian South Africans by Singh’s irresponsible claptrap.