Home is where racism festers

It is interesting to see some in the white community preparing their responses to the awful racist incident at Stellenbosch University where a white student urinated on the books and belongings of a black student. “Not all whites…” has been one of the predictable arguments which followed the outrage over what is, effectively, a hate crime. Then there were the “boys will be boys” debaters, claiming such incidents are normal at educational institutions, where pranks are not only common, but accepted.

“But why the fuss – no one died” was one line of logic which tossed in additional whataboutery by raising the spectre of black-on-white farm murders and alleged genocide.

The fact that this incident happened in South Africa, 28 years after the official end of the apartheid system – and in the same week that at least 10 black people were murdered by a young white gunman in Buffalo, New York – shows that racism is very much alive and well.

And a major part of the reason for its hale and hearty existence is because so many well-meaning and thinking white people turn a blind eye to it. Very few people are prepared to publicly call out racist behaviour when they see it. The racist joke, told in whites-only confines, is seldom challenged; the person who utters it is seldom shamed. The person who treats black people in an angry way without reason is seldom called out.

In the homes of many white people, the changes in the broader society don’t seem to penetrate what are little racist enclaves. And so children learn by example. The alleged perpetrator was a “born free”, who arrived into a country which was politically democratic for the first time in its history.

He can only have learned his hate at home and where he was educated.