“Educated black Society refuses to consider them genuine Negroes. The Negro is a savage, whereas the student is civilized. “You’re us,” and if anyone thinks you are a Negro he is mistaken, because you merely look like one.”― Frantz Fanon
So, we watched the BET awards right?! It was fire! Especially Jesse Williams’s speech! If you are black and pro-black, you should have been impressed! My daughter is visiting my parents neh, we have been chatting on WhatsApp, so we get into the awards and I ask her if she is watching and she says yeah and then a couple of minutes later she sends me a messages “Did you see Jesse Williams’s speech?” to which I respond “Fire, fire” and she says “I know, yoh” and then I proceed to send her the speech and she responds, argh! I shall attach our Convo below:
Anyway, I have been feeling a little heavy lately, what with that sparrow woman, the people who were actually collecting funding for her fine, the Judge and now the pastor! Like can we get a reprieve in SA tuu! Can we get a break?! People are saying more and more racists are coming out of the woodworks and they’re shocked! And I find that incredulous!!!!!! Why are they shocked that racism is rife in SA? Is it because they thought all racists died or disappeared when Mandela got released? Or did they believe the nonsensical rainbow nation?
See, I recently moved to PE and I have been here for almost two years now and I can tell you the rainbow nation definitely doesn’t exist here *from my perspective*! Most black people are in the townships, meaning when I go out to places around where I stay, I usually bump into a handful of black people *that was extremely odd for me, from constantly being surrounded by blackness, to a handful?* and this is on a lucky day, generally I am surrounded by whiteness! And coloureds too, hardly see them, apparently they stay in the Northern areas and it’s a place rife with gangsterism! All the reports I read on the herald, you would swear it’s a no go zone! And I am not even going to speak about Indians, I think I have seen way less than ten in the entire time I have been here, apparently also, they stay in Malabar *I have no idea where that is!* But I hope you get the picture, I struggle to see the rainbow nation here!
I also see why the white people here are so unaffected by everything happening around them, the violence! The lack of, the ignorance! Shit! They even celebrate Halloween, they flippen go tricka treating! *shoot me now* A funny thing happened when I had been here a couple of months, Walmer township residents were striking right and apparently, the strike was extremely violent that year, wait for it! Because they had decided to move the strike two streets further from where they normally have it! *I am laughing so hard right now, in shock and in pain* Whiteness in PE is unaffected! And that makes me know that whiteness in a lot of places in South Africa is unaffected! And there are black people who are happy with these status quo! Because they have been accepted into the fold, they are “unlike other blacks” akere! So, long as they stay in the burbs and drive the fancy cars!
First thing that got in my head when I read the Rivers Church bullshit! Was what did the black congregants do? Did they say anything? Did they atleast stage a walk out? What did they do? As they tithe at that church? Or were they just happy to be the “unentitled black?” The good one! The one better than all the other ones burning Tshwane! The better ones than the ones begging on the streets? The ones better than the ones loitering the streets looking for any piece job? My question still stands, WHAT DID THEY DO and not only that, WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO DO? It’s all good and all, reporting to social media but we don’t go to your church! We don’t spend our money there
My attitude for the past two or three years has been, I am not here for whiteness Shem! Not here for their comfort, not here for them taking offence to what I say or do! Not here for me to be sensitive to! Not here for me not to speak my truth around them! Not here to educate them on their ignorance! Not here to understand their understanding of our struggle and how they never really benefited from apartheid! I AM JUST NOT HERE FOR THEM! They like it, they don’t, they agree with or not! Tough! I am not here for them! And definitely teaching my kids to not be here for their bullshit!
I was worried about my daughter for a while, worried that with all these things going on in my growth, my own understanding of my blackness! Our conversations with my husband re: blackness and politics etc. it is making her miss out on being a child, on her just being a teen in SA and just enjoying the “Rainbow nation”, for she is vocal at school, she can’t stand white ignorance and calls them out in class! Calls out her peers, her friends, coloureds and whites on their ignorance and their racist attitudes! And I felt bad, I felt that I was stealing her youth, her period to be carefree and then I am reminded that there is the Luister video, there is #FeesMustfall, there is #OpenStellenbosch, there is the pastor, the judge, lots of Penny Sparrow’s and Matthew theunissen’s, I remember there were kids who died in 1976! I remember blackness is attacked everywhere, there is Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice! If this is not the time to educate her and prepare her, then when is? For racists are not sleeping!
I used to be shocked at the amount of racism from teen white kids! Extremely shocked! But not anymore! Our Convo made me smile! because the next breed will be aware of the self! The next breed will be WOKE! The next breed will be filled with pride and not afraid to speak their truth!
Article By Nthabiseng Lucia Tselapedi (Blog: Theprofessionalyeahright)
Birds of feather stick together…
This helps put things into perspective, we as humans are somewhat wire to want to belong in a group that thinks and mostly act like we do. It helps us become comfortable and accepted as acceptance is important to us. Just like you will notice people who wear and act a certain way stick together its the same as people of certain race will stick together in most cases. It never discrimination, it is just purely birds of the same feather sticking together. It only becomes discrimination when HATE in is the picture. This also goes to the friends you hang out with, in most cases you do because of how much you’ll are alike than any other thing. So don’t feel bad when your use to be friend is hanging with another group or you started to move with another group. Its all nature, sense of belonging, acceptance and purpose. There will be rare cases when it’s like the ICE AGE…
This was my Facebook status before reading this article…