Black pupils, if you don’t stand up for yourselves, the attacks will never stop

I FOUND your front-page article “Racism rife at top schools”, published on June 6, to be very disturbing.

“South Africa belongs to all who live in it,” we are told, and that includes our schools.

Black pupils, you cannot allow your white counterparts to continue to call you all these filthy, demeaning names and then remain silent.

By being silent you are telling them it’s okay to continue.

You have to be the change you seek, never in anger and definitely not through violence, never raise your voice and never be the first to raise your hand, ever.

The next time some white pupil tells you that you will grow up to be terrorist or a thief, why can’t you say to them, “you will grow up to be a racist or trash” or something? And when you are called the

K-word or the N-word?

There are some choice words you can also use but don’t just leave it. If you do not stand up for yourself, it’s never going to stop.

If you, as a pupil, feel that a teacher is treating you unjustly, then you or your parents should report the matter to the principal.

If that doesn’t work, then take the matter to the Education Department because that’s what white people would do, so why don’t we?

We must direct how others treat us by conducting ourselves with courage and dignity. If white teachers or parents themselves are not teaching the pupils this kind of behaviour, then why are they not preventing it?

No child is born with hatred in their hearts.

THE front page of the Weekend Argus published for June 6 to 7 this year.