The fight about racism is a valid and timely discussion. What concerns me is that it seems that in the eyes of all the vitriol being spewed by every pseudo political scientist on the topic the basic tenets what might cause this is not being looked at. In SA race has become a replacement/synonym for a difference in culture and values.
There is no way that one groups culture and values are more important than the others, but its high time we dont get caught up in racism when that is not what we are actually referring to, culture
CULTURE
1.
the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.
“20th century popular culture”
synonyms: the arts, the humanities; More
2.
the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society.
“Afro-Caribbean culture”
synonyms: civilization, society, way of life, lifestyle;
The unfortunate part in South Africa is that because of separate development and Apartheid we developed different cultures in different race’s.
Its easy to blame someone for a racist when all they are referring to is cultural differences.
What the ANC and other political parties have not succeeded at is creating a shared Culture for South Africans. Educating people about seeing culture instead of Race will change the conversation we having from a race based discussion to a shared CULTURE discussion for SA. We cant change our race, we can change our culture.
Here institutions like the one of a acquaintance of mine Barend La Grangeneeds mentioning ( Citizens in Partnership with Government) in working to create an environment where people of different cultures can have a discussion about their culture and out of that develop maybe a shared understanding of what it means to be South Africans.
So next time you listen to someone blaming another person for being a racist just ask yourself are they not maybe referring to Cultural differences instead.
CONRAD KOTZE 