A Virus Called Racism

The protests in the United States that reached into every corner of America, are not only about police brutality or justice; it’s about a fight to dismantle and ultimately destroy racism in all its disguises. The protests evoked memories of my childhood years during the most turbulent period of the fight against apartheid. Growing up with a fear that the colour of my skin could be used against me at any moment, was something I had no choice but to accept. In 1985 the apartheid government declared a state of emergency that gave the police unlimited powers in its crackdown on blacks or anyone resisting apartheid. This made it illegal for more than ten blacks to gather in one place at any given time. Isn’t it ironic that social distancing regulations like during the COVID-19 pandemic were already a thing back then? The sight of a yellow police van filled me with paralysing fear every time it passed me on my way to school, or to the shop. Some of my classmates disappeared under mysterious circumstances during the night. I’ve witnessed with horror how people in despair were pushed to the edge. The images of violence and inhumanity against blacks during the state of emergency in the 1980s will forever be etched in my mind. We have defeated apartheid by 1994, but what I didn’t know then, was that racism went underground.

Fifty-five years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.” That dream came true, but he didn’t live to witness it. However, he knew that racism is a virus that could be detected, but in most cases remain undetected in the hearts and minds of racists. In South Africa, we have witnessed a rainbow nation being birthed, but little did we know about the wicked power of racism to hide in plain sight. We saw it in the case against Penny Sparrow, the first person to be found guilty of crimen injuria for a racist slur on social media in post-apartheid South Africa. There are thousands of similar stories currently happening in the workplace.

In the United States, thanks to video recording technology, the power of racism to hide undetected, finally failed when a video surfaced on social media of a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, an African American man until he died. It led to protests in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, a day after Floyd was killed during the police arrest. Not even Floyd’s cry for his mother, or the words, “I can’t breathe” could stop the police officer from kneeling on him until he took his last breath. Let’s be honest, if people saw a video on Facebook or Twitter of a man digging his knee into the neck of a dog until it died, they would be utterly horrified. They would almost certainly click, comment, and call for the man’s immediate arrest. If that upsets people more than a white cop killing a black man, then they are not part of the vaccine we so desperately need, but part of the deadly racist virus. In South Africa, the oppression and killing of thousands of black people in the name of apartheid also drew the attention of the world, but sadly, we were left to fight and defeat the beast mostly on our own.

We as Blacks were born into a history of exhaustion based on the oppression that started with colonialism centuries ago. Our parents, grandparents and great grandparents carried those memories with them; it’s imprinted in our DNA. We are not dealing with a lack of emotional intelligence, but with the everyday behaviours, perceptions, perspectives, and assumptions of some white people who claim an unawareness that a race problem exists. These few whites - who have never experienced racism - claim that they don’t see colour and that “all lives matter”. In order to feel good, they engage in a blatant denial of what’s going on around them. My message to them is to stop hiding behind institutionalised racism. What's happening today is so much more than just saying, “I don’t see colour”. It’s about acknowledging that there’s a problem. For them to say that all lives matter during protests against racism, not only calls for serious introspection but ultimately for an immediate dismantling of racist mindsets. It calls for the destruction of systems rigged in such a way to marginalise and oppress black people. It calls for recognition that systemic racism is alive in the workplace, at school, at university, and in the church. In an interview with Stephen Colbert, the American television host, Jon Stewart said that the biggest obstacle to change has always been the inability of white Americans to understand that it is not just about ending segregation but dismantling the barriers. He said that while black people fought for equality for decades, the white people were building equity. The disparity between a lack of equality and a rise in equity just exacerbated the situation. Stewart said that equality can only come, once the black community gain access to the equity that was taken away from them.

In response to the protests, Jon Stewart said that because the death of George Floyd happened during the COVID-19 pandemic, it allowed most Americans a moment of clarity. In a moment of quiet reflection, America suddenly stopped and smelled the racism. Former US president, Barack Obama, wrote in an essay that, “if we want to bring about real change, then the choice isn’t between protest and politics. We have to do both.” The same goes for us as South Africans where institutional racism and something as unthinkable as service delivery protests, are choking us. First, let’s raise awareness, then vote with our conscience. It won’t bring about sudden change because as a species we have become disconnected from each other and from ourselves long ago. However, there’s an urgency to find unity in our diversity. Nelson Mandela said, “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” I conclude with the words of the philosopher, Socrates that sounds more like a call to action for all of us: “An unexamined life is not worth living”.