Thursday, 14 June 2018

Some thoughts on racism

I personally have far more experience of white racism than black racism. I work everyday with black people and have done so for many years. I have been going in and out of townships since the age of 5 even during the height of apartheid and during the army occupation if the townships. I have almost never experience any form of racism directed towards me and have only ever been treated with friendship and respect. 
I also work and study at a black university where I  receive a fee waiver, which means I don't pay fees-- this is quite common at doctoral level- and I also receive a bursary. So when people tell me about black racism and lack of opportunities for white people in this country I have to dispute them because this is not my experience. 
On the other hand I daily hear white running down black people and talking down to them as though they are children or stupid.. I daily hear whites sitting around at a braai or in the bar where the main topic of conversation is about how stupid/ dirty/ sexual predatory etc black people are and how much they have ###cked up the country... I am constantly being approached by white people whispering rude and offensive comments in my ear about black people because they assume because I am white I share there offensive assumptions. 
I realise this is my experience and I'm sure black people talk about us behind our backs as well... But I have never seen a black person, except perhaps when drunk, scream and swear and humiliate a white person in a public place in the way white people do, or talk down to people in an arrogant and condescending way as white people do all the time, . And this problem needs to be addressed we cannot ignore it any more as it is creating anti white sentiment and leading to violence against white people.....

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