Have you ever sat and thought that the definition of “black”, even if only for BBBEE purposes, is a matter of principle? A betrayal to the ONGOING cause of freedom?
It may very well seem like I am splitting hairs but I assure you, nothing could be further from the truth.
Freedom is more a state of mind than anything else. It is more than “going to the same schools” and “swimming in the same pool.” A free African should not feel the need to give their child a European name or even have a so-called “white wedding.” But that is, perhaps, yet another branch of the same rotting tree that requires another freshly-ground axe.
What grinds my gears is how we allow(ed) ourselves – African, coloured, Indian and Chinese – to be bundled together into one unremarkable race, without any particular identity. The purpose-built race that is “black.”
Is this not a form of maintaining the white supremacy construct that has defined us as a country for so long? Is this not a form of oppression, even if that oppression can be said to be self-imposed? I mean we are, in actual fact, saying that certain people of a certain complexion are white and whoever remains is black, are we not?
Even if we looked at this and said the position is informed by the need for economic transformation and restorative justice, we would need to dwell on the justice of it. Furthermore, why the collective “race” doesn’t seem to benefit from it.
Again, the result could be said to be the fruits of our own labour.
However:
Could one not perhaps argue that the self-loathing that informs the ongoing crisis of self is quite possibly the most insidious form of oppression in the architecture of apartheid? Could one not perhaps argue that these small observations are the diagnosis we must make in order to progress?
Black consciousness requires the unapologetic reclamation of identity. This is the state of mind which we should unashamedly call freedom.
PS: Being “pro-black” is not anti-white.
By Tiro Makhudu
Editing By Sihle Kea Moyake
