Let’s be done with racial obsession

ALLOW me to comment on the profound problem of racism. It is shocking that after 50 years of oppression and 20 years of democracy, we are colour-coded and tagged for our skin pigmentation.

This is a total betrayal of the legacy of Nelson Mandela, who fought for a non-racial and non-sexist South Africa. Racial profiling is a crime against humanity and must be condemned with utmost ferocity.

The dream of a “colour-blind” society is one that has fascinated many South Africans for some time.

The fact of overt and covert racism in itself has been among the reasons for the obsession with race and the way it has become a social and political football.

South Africa has never been a “colour-blind” society, and it is not likely that it ever will be so long as there are racial divisions. We will continue to face racial divisions and disparities far into the future.

Judging individuals on the basis of race legitimises “atavistic sentiments” and “awakens and lends respectability to the most primordial of group identities, namely race”. The goal of all South Africans of goodwill should be the creation of a society which is both “colour-blind” and committed to economic growth and advancement. Any system of state-enforced racial quotas in a declining economy is the prescription for intergroup tension and social dislocation. It violates our basic principles of individual freedom and our hope for continuing progress.

We must move away from the racial spoils system and towards the genuinely “colour-blind” society that most South Africans of all races seek to achieve.

FAROUK ARAIE Benoni