INLSA
Devi’s Diary
By Devi Rajab
WE HAVE experienced some interesting dynamics in race relations recently. When Julius Malema, the ANC Youth League president, referred to an indentured minority as Amakula he brought back some early memories of the 1948 race riots between Indians and Africans.
I was a young child then and I remember the visceral fear felt by an entire community as they grabbed their belongings and ran for cover, abandoning their homes.
Malema has apologised but revealed an even more disturbing fact and that was that his comrades tended to use these derogatory terms without realising what they were doing. But they are not the only ones guilty of such vile behaviour. I have personally heard Indians referring to blacks in equally derogatory terms in the workplace. There is dynamite out there waiting to be ignited.
In another incident that was reported recently, radio personality Darren Scott – in a surge of anger – called a buddy “k*****”. It just slipped out when he was so frustrated by his former friend’s behaviour in not repaying him for the money that he had borrowed from him.
At another level the appointment of Judge Chiman Patel as the chief justice of KwaZulu-Natal has been welcomed by all who believed that merit should prevail over race. But the questions raised at the interviews revealed some uncomfortable home truths about racial hierarchies and cultural exclusivity.
Refreshing
The election of Lindiwe Mazibuko as a parliamentary leader of the Democratic Alliance is a refreshing break from the perception of old style white leadership. But as the battle was waged within the ranks of the party, we saw the emergence of some raw racism rear its head.
Like Obama she won the battle, but the question arises, will she win the war? That war that runs subtly, deeply, invisibly, blatantly and that is ubiquitous.
If there is one thing that all South Africans agree on, it is the fact that we are a rather racist nation. In each of our heads the other is racist. At a drop of a hat we assume that all behaviour and its consequences emanate from a racist premise.
As I write this column, a colleague calls and says quite by chance: “I saw a certain person sitting on her own and I went to sit next to her in case she thought we were all against her because of her colour.”
Overcompensation is a characteristic response to dealing with sensitive issues. “I love Indian curry”; “My son-in-law is Jewish”; “I have adopted a black child” are racially cleansing platitudes.
How can I possibly be prejudiced if I feel this way, is the underlying rationalisation. Yet the “social distance index” is not even a reliable measure of people’s attitudes and behaviour.
So while I might adopt a black child I may not necessarily fully understand my prejudices against his or her culture.
In fact social science research finds little correlation between attitudes and behaviour and vice versa. People who say certain things about race may not necessarily endorse their beliefs with concomitant action.
One may believe that all people are equal but when it comes to treating everyone alike one is invariably influenced by a myriad other factors. Racism is like a chameleon that will change its colours to suit its environment.
At one point it can take on the character of cultural chauvinism, at another it can take on the form of cultural relativism. Its amorphous state requires constant introspection and self-analysis.
I once recall running a series of workshops on prejudice entitled Through Different Eyes – cross-cultural understanding and inter- personal relations. As I walked around the group everyone claimed that they were not prejudiced until one delegate blurted out… “but I thought Christ was a greasy brown Arab”.
Uncomfortable
There was the uncomfortable pause. Many of us may grow through life carrying our prejudices subliminally and we may never meet it head on until we really find ourselves in a situation that tests our real feelings. A life unexamined is really no life at all.
I learnt a great lesson from an old friend who was an amazingly sensitive and wonderful dramatist.
He wrote and staged plays and invariably the theme of his work was to scrutinise middle-class hypocrisy and to romanticise working class heroes. He was impeccable in his values. Until his daughter wanted to marry an older American black man. His daughter was young, intelligent, beautiful and Indian.
And therein lay the rub. The father was dead against the marriage for many reasons.
He didn’t trust the guy and he felt that he was too old for her. The suitor was insistent that the girl’s family was deeply prejudiced against him on account of his race.
Eventually when the couple did marry and the children came, the grandfather metamorphosed into a most loving grandparent truly embracing his African offspring.
For race relations to reach a new nadir we need to fully embrace our diversity as a multicultural society where race can no longer be defined in the binary terms of white and black. Our power lies in the amalgamation of a truly South African identity. So welcome, Lindiwe Mazibuko and Chiman Patel, as you take your rightful places in a truly democratic SA.
l Devi Rajab is a psychologist.
