Face your oppressor: look in the mirror

I have resisted writing a letter to those who say “Rhodes must fall”, but here goes.

South African youth. Those of you who feel aggrieved by the statue of Cecil John Rhodes at UCT, including the leader of your SRC, Ramabina Mahapa, and your governing student body: You have become a group of double-standard embracing sell-outs. A laughing stock.

I may be alone here but as for the rest of you South Africans, black, white or otherwise – watching idly as an organ of your history (whether you like it or not), is defaced by some poorly informed and misdirected youths – why are you so quiet? What are you scared of? Being labelled a ‘racist’?

Not a day goes by without some conservative being called a racist. Anything that is said or done from any conservative point of view is essentially animated by ‘racism’. Now calling someone a racist is a very serious matter. That would be someone who believes that one race is inherently superior or inferior to another. As if it isn’t intelligence or goodness that determines an individual’s worth – it’s his or her skin colour. It is not the identifying of characteristics or traits of a race, but the marginalisation of one race on any of those grounds, that is effectively racist. This is entrenched in our constitution.

Why are conservatives painted with the brush colouring them in as foolish or evil?

The answer is chiefly political. As liberal organisations like the UCT SRC and other national parties need to rally black support, they know that this will draw in the numbers. To do this they point at conservative policies, such as the opposition to affirmative action. I quite firmly believe that this is way past its expiry date.

To erase the advantage/disadvantage differentiation, standards were and still remain lower than those for other ethnic groups, to allow black South Africans to enter the job market. This includes lowering the standard of education, of expected academic and social performance, and effectively flooding the local economy with poorly skilled, ill-equipped and under-experienced black South Africans. It sets them up for failure.

This is evident in various sections of modern South Africa – doctors misdiagnosing patients, police incompetently trained, infrastructure poorly maintained (yes, hello, Eskom) and emigration to countries without affirmative action policies.

There are incalculable success stories in every arena of work. The affirmative action policy is therefore no longer necessary. It’s about hard work, blood, sweat and tears.

So who’re the real racists here? Who’re looking down at previously disadvantaged South Africans, and saying they’re not clever enough to compete with the rest of the world? It certainly isn’t white conservatives. Believe it or not, it’s actually black South Africans themselves. Those who accuse conservatives of being racist, actually believe black South Africans are not as capable as other ethnic groups.

Those black South Africans who still believe that they are actively oppressed by anything that is ‘white’, historically or not, even 21 years after the end of apartheid, begin intimidating through numbers and racist allegations, that certain elements that do not accelerate black superiority be immediately and unquestionably removed. And of course you will get people pleasers and those who are simply scared of being falsely accused as racist that follow suit or more commonly, remain silent on the matter.

If you want to face your oppressor, look in the mirror.

THRIVIN NAIDOO

Seatides

Letter shortened – Editor.