"No one is born racist. Children do not see a difference. It must be pointed out to them. This is the power of the first epistemic encounter," writes Cape Argus subscriber Alex Tabisher. "No one is born racist. Children do not see a difference. It must be pointed out to them. This is the power of the first epistemic encounter," writes Cape Argus subscriber Alex Tabisher.
Shortly before the election, those of us who were not black by definition, were apprehensive and stocked up on food, drink and even ammunition with the perceived threat of losing our homes to blacks.
This was our first mistake. We had all experienced the effectiveness of apartheid indoctrination. This was the success of the herrenvolk, those narrow-minded near-Nazi Calvinists who believed that white was right, while holding a Bible in one hand and a rifle in the other.
Fast-forward and really look inside yourself, whatever language or racial group you belong to.
I am, by definition, coloured, and I have suffered in this system.
I found gaps to survive the military muscularity of the policing that prevented me from even walking through a white residential area after a certain hour.
This fierce cunning was totally successful in denting my mind no matter how reprehensible it was during execution. Confronting this experience is one of the first steps in healing our land, our society and our families.
No one is born racist. Children do not see a difference. It must be pointed out to them. This is the power of the first epistemic encounter. The mother nurtures the child’s body and his developing consciousness.
Much of the racist regime’s work was done round the breakfast table. Not all whites were racists. We had the thinkers who knew that this heinous discrimination was finite, and there were people across the globe ready to step in and help.
The other marginalised groups (coloured, Indian, faith-based communities) sided with those who agreed the cruelty had to end. By the same token, not all blacks were Struggle heroes.
Many of them also found ways to survive the constricting race laws and be successful citizens of the world. One is quoted as saying: “I did not join the Struggle to be poor.”
So we start the journey towards healing by looking at the above. Not at the colonists, who were raiders out to grab what they could for as long as they could.
They did their damage, but they ended up being thrown out. Their capers now merely provide grist to the mill of academics who pursue doctorates in decolonisation.
Not so the herrenvolk. They were here to stay in much the same way the ANC is threatening. And so they still have their Orania. A live model of an apartheid state after all these years.
Let’s do the basics. Start the healing dialogue at home. The damage was done by the racist regime who are the real colonisers of our minds.
The vigour of their efforts still have an effect on how we think. We must shake their categories and form a national collective of diverse citizens.
We have to fashion a new national unity.
* Literally Yours is a weekly column from Cape Argus reader Alex Tabisher. He can be contacted on email by actabisher@gmail.com
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Newspapers.