Racism is not a problem in SA

AN INITIATIVE to tackle the myth that racism is a problem in South Africa has been met with mixed reaction.

The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) recently launched an initiative, Racism Is Not the Problem.

It said the initiative was to dispel the myth that racism was an issue. It aimed to expose individuals, or groups, who used fake allegations of racism as a distraction from the major problems confronting the country – or for monetary gain.

The initiative was based on a survey conducted for its report titled, Critical Race Theory and Race-based Policy: A threat to liberal democracy.

The report, said the IRR, showed that South Africans do not regard racism as:

♦ A major problem.

♦ Very few experience racism in their daily lives.

♦ Politicians and private actors inflate the issue of racism for their own benefit.

The survey was conducted among 2 459 people from all nine provinces between November and December last year.

Of those surveyed, 78.6% were black, 9% coloured, 2.9% Indian, and 9.3% white. It covered rural and urban areas and all socio-economic strata.

Those surveyed were asked whether they thought relations between people of different races had improved, stayed the same, or become worse since 1994.

♦ 42.8% of black, 45% of coloured, 33.9% of Indian, and 31.6% of white respondents said it had improved.

♦ 26.6% of black, 20.2% of coloured, 34.9% of Indian, and 27.6% of white respondents said it stayed the same.

♦ 24.1% of black, 29.5% of coloured, 27.2% of Indian and 35.2% of white respondents said it became worse.

Those surveyed were also asked whether they had experienced any form of racism in the past five years.

To this, 16% of black respondents, 8.5% of coloured, 20.7% of Indians and 28.4% of white respondents said they did. However, 81.3% of blacks, 87.8% of coloured, 75.8% of Indian and 68.9% of white respondents said they did not experience racism in the past five years.

They were also asked if conversations about racism and colonialism were used by politicians, who were trying to find excuses for their own failures. To this 52% of black, 58.7% of coloured, 65.1% of Indian and 63.2% of white respondents agreed, while 16% of all race groups disagreed.

However, 29.2% of all race groups neither agreed nor disagreed.

Gabriel Crouse, the head of campaigns and a senior analyst at the IRR, said his analysis of the results of the study was encouraging. He said it showed that claims of extensive racial prejudice and hate among South Africans were a myth.

“A majority of South Africans agree that racism allegations are an excuse used by politicians to cover up their failures. Everywhere racism is pushed as a kind of opioid for the masses to dull people from confronting the real problems.”

Sher Singh, the secretary of the South African Minority Rights and Equality Movement (Samrem), said: “With regard to the Indian community, it is clear that there is entrenched racist legislation, which contravenes the United Nations conventions on the rights of minorities.

“The legislation is a crime against humanity and the rights of Indian children, workers and businessmen, who are discriminated against because of race. So, to suggest that there is no racism of the worst kind and abuse of the right to equality for Indian South Africans is shockingly mistaken.”

Dr Paul Kariuki, the executive director of the Democracy Development Program, a non-profit organisation, said: “The initiative is welcomed as it will offer South Africans an opportunity to interrogate the view that racism is not the problem.”

Kariuki said, however, that racism remained an issue.

“Racism often manifests as one of the consequences of skewed development and the inability to participate meaningfully in the formal economy.

“When citizens are unable to meet their needs and have less economic means to do so, racial tensions often occur.

“Until under-development and all its structural effects on the citizenry is addressed, racism will continue pervasively in society with adverse effects that threaten our cohesiveness."

Kariuki said naming people would not solve the problem. “Exposing their actions is more influential as it frames societal conversations about the problem. To solve the challenge, uncomfortable dialogues are needed that go past naming individuals.”

Nora Saneka, an exco member of the Active Citizens Movement (ACM), said: “From my experience, those who say that racism is not a problem are generally from the more privileged sector of society.”

Saneka said she found that many white people were in denial about how racism permeated all aspects of society, their own historic racial privilege, and how that advantaged them.

“Women and black women, in particular, affirm that there is an intersectionality to oppression, and race, class, language, economic strata, gender, sex, age, disability and/or illness are all factors.

“Any one of these can also be exploited by populists to detract from the others or to deflect from societal culpability and personal and political responsibility, particularly by fascists. But to be blind to the reality of racism in post-apartheid South Africa opens oneself up to being attacked by these reactionary elements.”