ANYONE of a darker hue who claims to have not experienced racism in some form or another in their lifetime must be so lucky that I beg them to play the lotto for me. Such luck is rare.

I need that kind of luck in the game of chance, what with economists predicting tough times for South Africans this year.

As I pen down my thoughts I am an incensed South African because of the racist comments that kickstarted 2016. The racial diatribes that did the rounds have put the recent high temperatures to shame in terms of impact.

Just as we were battling climes that conjure up images of Lucifer, the likes of estate agent Jane Sparrow and economist Chris Hart had to go and test the limits of race relations in the country fragile as such relations are.

Earlier this week Sparrow unleashed an uproar with a Facebook post in which she boldly declared that from now I shall address the blacks of South Africa as monkeys as I see the cute little wild monkeys litter”.

Hart added fuel to the fire by claiming through tweet that the majority (blacks) hate minorities (whites) and have a growing sense of entitlement.

It is befuddling that Sparrow and Hart would use social media to vent their fury but therein lies the problem with racism.

Racism is so blinding that all form of rationale escapes many once they venture down that lane. When viewing matters from a racial perspective many lose their sense of sanity.

The racist vitriol that swells up defies all form of logic and the likes of Sparrow see the very people (I am positive black people formed a huge part of her clientele) who made her commission that much sweeter through their purchases of houses as animals. How ironic. It is not as if Sparrow has been swinging from tree to tree selling houses to orang-utans. However, on a serious note, racism is an endemic problem and one that does not elicit much humour though the likes of comedian Trevor Noah often get it right. It will also be foolhardy to assume that racism is confined to South Africa. Far beyond the shores of our beloved country, the scourge of racism continues to rear its ugly head time and again.

For the football fanatics, who can forget the banana thrown at FC Barcelona fullback Dani Alves during a football match last year?

Perhaps it is at this juncture that one poses the question: how do we tackle the manifestation of racism within society?

It is telling that in South Africa this week some online news providers had to close their comment sections because of racist comments that did the rounds.

Perhaps Alves’s reaction at having a banana thrown at him is a good starting point. The Barca legend simply ate half the banana, got some much-needed energy and then proceeded to help the Catalans equalise and go on to win their game.

How is that for a reaction?

The actions of the likes of Sparrow and Hart call for similar reaction. For starters it is commendable that political parties made the right kind of noises in reaction to such folly by putting forward suggestions to criminalise racism.

I for one have seen young intelligent men who opposed apartheid racism captured and assaulted so badly that after a week in prison they returned home as broken human beings never to recover again.

To even think for a moment that in this day and age one would have the temerity to even refer to people in such racial demeanour not only boggles the mind but simply highlights the sickness that is racism.

While it may be exceedingly difficult to decipher what may constitute racism in a court of law, there, however, needs to be a platform to launch the war on racism and throw the book at racists.

Cases similar to Sparrow’s are, of course, easy to argue. To spew such vitriol about others does not need legal gymnastics to prosecute.

Perhaps this approach [criminalising racism] will help deter many likeminded bigots from making racist remarks or acting in a manner informed by racism.

However, reactions such as that by Velaphi Khumalo, an employee of the Gauteng department of sports, arts, culture and recreation, who called for black South Africans to do to white people what Hitler did to the Jews” are not to be encouraged and should be viewed with the contempt they deserve.

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