Two weeks ago, I set up a chat group on Facebook after hearing a radio show wherein a black former star cricketer lamented the racist ostracisation his mother suffered at a match he featured in for the Proteas. The mothers of his white teammates were spared similar demeaning treatment.
Racism is a white construct. Black people are incapable of being racist because of such ingrained ethos as ubuntu and the belief that motho ke motho ka batho (a person is human through others). The essence is best captured in the adage “I am because you are”.
It was the Europeans who came to enlighten natives of the so-called Dark Continent. It is racism that fuels the need to help other people out of their perceived backwardness.
A row has erupted over an invitation to whites to the BlackForum chat group, with purists of blackness frothing at the mouth over the Rainbow Nation complexion of the membership. In their view, a black man wishing to fight the abuse of other black folk has no business inviting non-blacks to a tête-a-tete on racism. This is the crux of my discomfort.
It is white supremacy that spawns racism and those under the jackboot of this scourge are the majority black. It was a no-brainer that the perpetrator and the victim be brought around the same table to thrash out the problem and try to find solutions.
One of those who took umbrage at the colour make-up of BlackForum used the analogy of a family meeting to advance his argument that BlackForum should be a blacks-only gig.
I am adamant that if the family meeting is convened to address a problem that emanates from the house next door, the neighbour must be hauled in for an audience.
Farm murders are topical because the white lunatic fringe is warning of a white genocide, a figment of their fertile imagination. But absent in the protest is the abuse and killing of the black farmworker, at the hands of his white employer.
The chief detractor of BlackForum says the naming is tantamount to inviting men to a woman’s body because they will pontificate – his words – their patriarchy. The essence of the weight behind such men formations as #NotInMyName is of the offending gender standing with victims of gender-based violence.
Clicks just had a bad hair day. In getting to the bottom of the matter, do we exclude the white component of the creatives who crafted the offending ad? Two scenarios have played out: blacks can gather in the family meeting, get themselves worked up and march, inevitably ending the protest in violent action that invites lawsuits, or a conversation can ensue where black and white ad people can hear how sensitive hair is among black folk.
Being the administrator of a social media group is hair-raising: intolerance rules and trumps reason. Blacks leave because there are whites; whites leave because they are not allowed to joke about racism.
In the family meeting, members of the family should pull no punches telling the neighbour how he causes them angst. A good neighbour dare not suggest the family move house. He will mend his ways so the two camps can mend the fence.
If the aim is to build a South Africa free of racism, whites will desist from lording it over blacks and suggest how the latter should feel about the scourge – they will empathise.
Makatile is the group administrator of BlackForum on Facebook.
The Star