The Spear proof of racial ideology

RACIAL ideology in postapartheid SA seems to be alive and kicking.

Contrary to what Brett Murray would like us to believe, racial ideology has not permanently disappeared, but has merely taken a new form.

Anti-black ideology wrongly claims that blacks are inferior and incapable of being equal to whites in intellect and moral character; that blacks are lazy and sexually promiscuous.

This ideology has often presented blacks as less than fully human, as either animal-like, demonic or as mere things to be manipulated and exploited.

Notably, just like it is hard to find anyone who supported apartheid, it is similarly hard to find anyone who openly professes to racism. However, racism is still being practised in SA, even if by other means.

New forms of racism are subtle, often expressed in disguise, for instance as art, thought, freedom of speech and freedom of expression to define boundaries of self and other, of in groups and out groups, in judgements about who deserves respect and who merits contempt.

New racism emphasises the ineradicable cultural pathology of blacks rather than their biogenetic inferiority.

A critical scrutiny of Murray’s art, The Spear, in which President Zuma is portrayed with his genitals exposed, reveals a deeply entrenched anti-black ideology that is so firmly held, criticism of it alone, however forceful, will not lead to its repudiation.

Nakedness of black people, such as the upsetting public display of the naked Saartjie Baartman, has always provided entertainment to white people.

It is quite clear Murray targets Zuma’s choice of polygamous marriage, vilifies it and presents it as something to laugh at and amuse visitors to the Goodman Gallery.

Nakedness of blacks still sells big, that’s why Murray’s The Spear is reportedly worth over R100 000. If Murray and the Goodman Gallery were genuine in expressing their regrets about the painting, why still sell it? Tshepo Manyane