Time to confront this mindless and petty racism

THE DA debacle with regard to DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard sharing a post on Facebook, which called for the return of PW Botha, highlights how South Africans deal with racism on social media.

People voice their opinions though the use of Facebook and Twitter, and effectively engage with each other over the issues of racism and discrimination.

However, what happens when one is confronted by racism in an ordinary situation? How should we, as South Africans, be dealing with the perpetrators? Let me put this into context. Yesterday, my mother (white, 57 years old) went to the hospital to get some tests done. While she was walking across the hospital parking lot towards the entrance, she saw a white man (accompanied by his wife and other possible family members) who seemed to be around her age speaking aggressively to two coloured men.

One of the coloured men seemed to be a hospital parking attendant.

This white man appeared to be rather angry about something as he was invading their personal space and speaking in a harsh tone.

The two coloured men did not retaliate and just stood listening to him. As my mother could not hear what the argument was about, she walked on.

After her tests were done, my mother made her way to the lift to leave the hospital. As she approached the lift, she saw the same white man from the parking lot with the rest of his family group.

They were standing outside the open lift and did not seem to be moving, even though they would have needed to go to the ground floor to exit the hospital.

As my mother approached the lift, she noticed that it was only occupied by one man – a coloured man in his twenties.

My mother got into the lift and, still, the white man with his group did not move, even though there was ample space for everyone to comfortably fit in.

The lift doors finally closed and my mother turned to the coloured man and asked if he knew why they did not get into the lift.

The young, well-spoken coloured man replied, “I don’t know… Those people are still living in the past.”

To which she replied, “How stupid! We are all South African.”

The actions of this white man bothered my mother as she made her way home and still irritated her when she retold the encounter to me that evening.

I inquired whether she made any comments to the white man, and she said that in that moment, she was so shocked at the way this man was behaving, that she did not manage to reproach him.

She could not believe that people could be so rude and blatantly racist. After everything people have gone through to make our country inclusive and non-discriminatory, it is incredibly sad that people still behave in ways that reflect the “old regime”.

Upon further investigation, it would appear that this white man is often at the hospital and is known by the parking attendants for his constant criticism and rudeness.

My question to fellow South Africans is: How should we deal with these people who are blatantly racist?

Often when these situations arise, we are too shocked in the moment to respond and, as in this case, the white man did not verbally say anything.

However, his body language and attitude towards the young man in the lift spoke volumes.

Perhaps it is time that society as a whole takes a stand against this type of racist behaviour.

So when you see acts of blatant racism, try to confront it instead of standing silently by and allowing it to take place.

We as a society need to stand up to the racist bullies and not allow

Grandson

A FEATURE of the Tekweni documentary is cameo appearances by one Jan Smuts, grandson of the general and bearing an uncanny resemblance.

Maybe we should just make him prime minister and start again.

Mandela

IN HIS autobiography, Long Walk To Freedom, Nelson Mandela recalls a visit by Smuts to Fort Hare University, where Mandela was a student, during World War II.

The students cheered Smuts to the rafters.

Mandela says it was only afterwards he reflected that Smuts “speaks English with a worse accent than I do”.

Shakespeare

SMUTS was an austere intellectual. Once, during the war, he and British prime minister Winston Churchill were visiting the troops in the Western Desert.

They were in the mess one evening when, after dinner, them to make our fellow South Africans feel inferior. In a sense, that is what racists do.

They are bullies who target people of colour to belittle them and instil their belief that people of colour are second-rate citizens and inferior.

Therefore, as we teach our children to stop the playground bullies, we as adults need to take a stand against the racist bullies in our society and stamp out their archaic ideology.

We are all citizens of South Africa and deserve to be treated in accordance with our constitution.

Bristow is an environmental education assistant at the Environmental Resource Management Department.

Churchill challenged Smuts to an exchange of quotations from Shakespeare.

Back and forth it went. Then Smuts found himself running out of Shakespeare. But Churchill kept firing. Smuts gave up.

“Prime Minister, I’m afraid I’ve run out of Shakespeare.”

“My dear fellow,” Churchill chortled, “I’ve been making them up for the past half-hour.”

Smuts the intellectual aesthete was shocked.

Tailpiece

HOW do you know if an Irishman is at the cockfight? He enters a duck. How do you know if a Pole is present? He puts money on the duck. How do you know if an Italian is present?

The duck wins.

Last word

THERE is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action. – Bertrand Russell