Virus brings out new ugliness in form of racism

There was a massive outcry, as well there should be, when Chinese television advertisements for soap used a black person as the “before” and a Chinese person as “after” use of said soap products.

There was also a massive outcry, also not without justification, when a European clothing chain advertised a range of children’s clothing, one of which depicted a monkey on a hoody worn by a black child.

You can blame these on ignorance or racism.

The coronavirus has brought out a new ugliness — racism against Chinese people.

A video clip doing the rounds on social media shows a man who looks Chinese, walking among (black) people yelling abuse about the coronavirus at him.

In the background you can hear several people laughing.

Similar incidents have been reported around the world and again you can blame this on ignorance or racism.

But then again, there is this belief that every so often gets aired, which says that a black person cannot be racist.

This is based on the understanding that racism is a unique structural condition established by colonial powers which created a hierarchy placing “aboriginal” people at the bottom of the rung of humanity.

There is somewhat of an homology with anti-Semitism.

It describes a hatred of Jews, never mind that the “Semitic people” or “Semitic language” may include people whom we would today describe as Arabs.

That’s the problem with racism, identity politics (when used for discriminatory or exclusionary purposes), and notions of exceptionalism or the idea of a “chosen people”.

It gets terribly complicated and anyone can claim persecution status.

In SA, we seem to be in constant contest over who was or is more persecuted based on race or other identity.

It is especially dangerous when concepts of race, ethnicity, heritage or culture — which is often code for “race ”— are exploited, and abused — the way that the EFF (or Idi Amin, or Hitler) might.

So even I, as a self-declared black person, can and have been told that I am “not African ”— which, by extension, means I “don’t belong”.

I should, someday, share the nasty e-mail, and personal threats I get from black people who tell me that I am white, or Indian, or coloured and that they will “take me out”. But that’s a separate issue.

As a black person, I am led to believe that cannot be racism; that only white people can be racist.

So, I can be a murderer, thief, rapist, paedophile and misogynist, but I cannot be a racist.

That’s hard to digest. How does one explain the meanness that was directed at the Chinese person in the video?

Listen carefully and you will hear among us, black people, speaking disparagingly about “fong kong” (a derogatory reference to products that originate from China).

The problem, the way I see it, is part of the contestation among us to claim “most-persecuted status”, which comes with the odious belief that we are necessarily and eternally innocent, and by dint of that, everyone else is guilty.

And we have to remind “them ”— whoever they may be — that they are guilty.

Among us, we can never point out each other’s failings.

There’s a word we use in the township for that.

It’s called braskap — which is not terribly different from criminal behaviour where we watch each other’s back, and never expose our fellow black people as wrong, or bad, or offensive — or even racist.

When you see the video clip doing the rounds on social media, of the Chinese-looking person walking among black people and being called “coronavirus” (while some people have a merry chuckle), how do you respond?

Do we say we were persecuted, our parents and leaders were incarcerated, which gives us licence to be offensive and racist?

We know we have to stand in solidarity (braskap).

It’s the mantra of admit nothing, deny everything and deflect attention that is used by organised criminal networks and dodgy politicians who make a lot of noise about everything, because it’s useful for deflecting attention from their own misdeeds.

The Covid-19 virus is a dangerous and tragic phenomenon. It knows no boundaries, it knows, and cares nought, for racial or ethnic exclusivity.

A few years ago a white woman lost her job because she said, in New York, that she was going to SA and hoped she would not get Aids, then added that she probably wouldn’t because she was white.

That is how diseases that can lead to the death of many people becomes weaponised.

None of us would accept it if we, as Africans, went to Europe and were called “ebola ”— just because the Ebola virus was most virulent in Africa.

Why do we accept, and laugh, when a Chinese man is called “corona” or “coronavirus”? We know we can’t be racist.

What then should we think of ourselves?