Undoing Social Constructs

If you Google the word ‘Protest’, you will see that there are simultaneous protests happening globally on a daily basis. A worldwide revolution is happening, particularly around the subject of race. Despite the many decades since apartheid, we still experience racism in our communities on a daily basis.

White people seem to feel somewhat alienated in claiming that reverse racism is occurring, yet I contend that civil society is simply responding to the prevalent racism as witnessed. After all, causes of mass protests don’t manifest out of thin air, there’s always a sense of conscious and collective agreement that spurs such cumulative action from society.

White privilege is far from a myth, and is not intended to reverse the roles of racism in civil society, nor is it intended to polarize people or foster hatred. White privilege is the understanding that as a white person you a born with an inherent advantage just through being white and thus, should not seek to demean, undermine or insult others who may have not had the same opportunities due to being born a particular race.

For example, white people will commonly refer to black people as being lazy, however I pose the question to you: Does a black woman who wakes up at 3am in the township of Khayelitsha, to walk for half an hour in the cold of the night to get water in which to have a bath in a metal tub, so that she can arrive at work by 6am, 2 hours away from home to clean the lavish home of her white employer, lazy? How is it possible to brand certain black students as lazy, when they have no option but to study by candlelight in a shack at night? Can you really say that white privilege does not exist?

I experienced the shock of witnessing firsthand, my friend Mamello Ntombela be refused a table reservation at one wine estate because of her African accent and surname. Subsequently, I phoned the wine estate and made a reservation under my name, for Mamello, and was given a choice of seating under the name of Ms Lotz.

When Mamello arrived, she had to say I was her “P.A” in order to get through the door, proving that they were not fully booked. Such blatant racism is a common experience for many black South Africans, so is it really fair for white people to deny the testimonies of their black counterparts with a dismissive attitude as though racism is not relevant?

It’s understandable that white people feel threatened by the term ‘white privilege’. I can also see how the white youth feel blamed for the actions of their forefathers, something they are not personally accountable for. Yet, white youth are responsible for not continuing the fallacies of apartheid, for not perpetuating the myths handed down as a legacy of social conditioning. It is the responsibility of white youth to question the status quo and ask; Are black people really lazy or have I been told to believe that? Are all black people violent criminals or have I been told to believe that?

It is fundamentally critical in order to move forward in the grace of reconciliation that civil society, black and white, shakes off the conditioning handed down by the forefathers of our history. Equally important, is for black people to question the conditioning given to them by their elders and to ask critical questions, such as; Am I less worthy and inferior because I am black or have I been told to believe that? Will I never become a success because I am black or have I been told to believe that? Do I have no chance in business or have I been told to believe that?

We can only emerge as a stronger and more united nation, when we are collectively willing to look past social stigmas, myths and fallacies that we have been told to believe. We can only move forward in the spirit of reconciliation when both black and white people refuse to accept the negative ancestral legacies handed down from generation to generation. It won’t happen over night, but we don’t have one hundred years either.

It’s a time of revolution but also a time to make what is wrong, right. A time to reconcile and put aside the negative mind constructs that we have built around ourselves. It is time to break down the walls of separation, and to acknowledge each other’s battles and each other’s difficulties, but most of all to proceed with compassion for each other.