'Pro-black is not anti-white'

2008-03-10 13:17

Jon Qwelane

Another week in the "new" South Africa and, boy! What tedium!

Some peanut brain tries to tell me that I misquoted Plato, and goes on to concoct a bit of nonsense which he falsely attributes to the famous philosopher!

Then there are those who have a literal and shallow meaning of the expression "I do not apologise for this stand"; they berate me, and want me to "apologise" for stating that I believe black people have the constitutional right to assemble by themselves.

And of course, there have been the predictable theatrics by the usual crowd, whose knee-jerk reaction includes rushing to post so-called "responses" to what they have obviously not read with any understanding. No wonder this country is in such a mess!

The "baas" and "miesies" mentality still holds sway among a greater part of the white section of this country's population: they want to claim for themselves the sole copyright of the ability to think but, having all their miserable lives never been confronted with blacks who can think for themselves and can brush off the lies, stand their ground and refuse to be cowed. When they are, Baas and Miesies resort to what they know best - bullying, threats and lying.

Talking about racism

Some pathetic individuals seem to think that one instantly becomes a racist by talking about racism! If such "logic" were correct, then most of South Africans would be criminals, because they talk about crime nearly all the time.

This week the South African Human Rights Commission held a major conference at its Parktown, Johannesburg, offices where the matter of the Forum of Black Journalists - with which I sympathise fully - was discussed, especially our firm stand against holding our imbizo with whites when we met ANC leader Jacob Zuma.

I still maintain, as I told the meeting, that there continue to be numerous pressures on us as a people that require us - the black people - to address fully. Most of those pressures are peculiar to the black community, and as such it would require black people with their first-hand knowledge and understanding of the situation, to formulate responses accordingly.

The majority of black people live in squatter camps; those are our uncles and aunts, cousins, brothers and sisters. We do not speak with an "ag-shame" attitude when we talk about the "squatters" and their depressed and depressing living conditions; we talk from bitter experience, not the intellectual theorising of some white people and their coconut friends.

Living them

We are the only section of the population whose children and youth are afflicted by the scourge of teenage pregnancies, wayward alcoholism and drug dependency. Again we do not intellectualise about these horrifying conditions. We live them on a daily basis.

Neither will denying that the HIV/Aids epidemic affects, in the main, the black population nor will trying to deny the fact that the majority of criminals and lawbreakers in South Africa are black, solve anything.

As blacks, I doubt it very much if we would be as keen as whites and their coconuts to scream for the return of the death penalty, because we are keenly aware that the death penalty was always meant mainly for black people; I think we would be more inclined to seek honest solutions which would include the causes underlying the rising crime spiral.

So by supporting our decision to have blacks-only imbizos where we delve deep into these matters, one is not being racist: we are pro-black, but not necessarily anti-white.

Think very carefully about that last sentence. Or, as I will not be surprised by the reaction, go on convincing yourself uselessly that all this "confirms" that I am a racist!

Jon Qwelane's column is published each week on News24, courtesy of Jon Qwelane and the editor of Sunday Sun, which originally carried the article.

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