OPINION | OHeerden reflects on the recent incident at Stellenbosch University, and writes that pretending there's no white privilege and continuing with our head in the sand as it relates to racism just won't cut it any longer.
Students march against racism at Stellenbosch University last week Thursday.reflects on the recent incident at Stellenbosch University, and writes that pretending there's no white privilege and continuing with our head in the sand as it relates to racism just won't cut it any longer.
When considering that racism so prevalent in South African society and wanting to have a correct understanding of the phenomenon, it is essential to look at all three aspects of racism: individual, institutional and structural.The historical injustice of the South African chapter of racism can be found in a very neat theory coined by the ANC as 'Colonialism of a Special Type'.
UCT's Professor de Vos provides us with a solution in which he indicates that one does not address the consequences of structural racism merely by creating opportunities for black people to 'assimilate' into the normative white world. Instead he says, you transform the society and challenge the basic meaning-giving assumptions according to which society operates and in terms of which goods, services and opportunities are distributed.
The paper explains that 'the national question plays itself out in ways that are specific to the concrete conditions in various parts of the world. Nevertheless, it is fundamentally a continuous search for equality by various communities which have historically merged into a single nation-state, or the struggle for self-determination and even secession by communities within such states.'
National oppression and its legacy are linked closely to class exploitation and so can only be successfully addressed in the context of socio-economic transformation.
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