teams continue to keep black players out.
And indeed this organisation should isolate idiots like Velaphi Khumalo who spews racial hatred, bigotry in the name of black people.
We certainly cannot leave matters in the hands of politicians and other benefactors, some of whom serve narrow interests camouflaged as social issues.
If you look around at the organisations that are fighting for justice and taking on social matters they are mostly white or white-led.
Whether it is AfriForum, Section27, Freedom Under Law, Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance or Treatment Action Campaign, these organisations are not born in the trenches where most discrimination still happens, where most underprivilege continues. and sense of worth to all human beings. Therefore, this creates a hierarchy of challenges that continues to flood social media and other channels.
What is painful about racism is that it affects perpetrators and victims alike. Those who incite racism fear losing their privileges, which goes with power, while the victims are dehumanised and left broken. This can only mean one thing; we owe it to ourselves to engage frankly and be open. It is also a fact that we cannot undo the legacy of apartheid overnight.
This trio remind us that to brush away issues and pretend they do not exist is a convenient lie. Structures that propelled racism during the apartheid years still exist, and some are
For the record, we need to commend the work done by all of the organisations mentioned above, especially the likes of Section 27 and TAC for championing issues for the downtrodden.
But that exactly is my problem, why should these issues be championed mostly by white people on behalf of black people? Where are the black people to fight for their own rights?
What I am calling for here is an organisation in the shape of those of the late 1960s and 1970s. Black people, realising that apartheid was condemning them to everything of the worst, started their own clinics, legal advice centres, Saturday even stronger under the democratic dispensation.
There are legally registered institutions whose mandate is to protect the gains of apartheid. We know these institutions and yet we never engage them.
As these discussions continue, South Africa must agree on the most explicit definition of racism, taking into consideration the country’s history. This shall find expression in our Constitution and be easy for the courts to interpret. We have seen how cases in the Equality Court have ended. They start with greater media hype and lose potency along the way. Even those brought before the equality court can relax and enjoy prominence because they know that there will be no serious consequence. schools, theatre groups and more.
These were the springboard of an eternal resistance against apartheid at the time when the ANC and PAC were banned and their leaders languishing in exile or jail.
Sparrow has just reminded us that we need to take our freedom into our own hands and defend this democracy. But to do so, we need to mobilise as black people.
Sparrow and others continue to show us every day that the struggle is not over.
We need to put our money where our mouths are, literally.
Because if not us, then who? If not now, then when?
Perhaps it can be argued that more racists have realised that they can cause harm and get away with it.
Failure to deal with racism will mean one thing, the victims (blacks in this instance) will forever blame the perpetrator and never take responsibility even for their own actions.
We all have a responsibility to build this country and make it a home for all who live in it, black or white.
We have the ability and capacity to correct whatever that stand to divide us. It’s all about us. It is our country.