I have followed the story of Llwellyn Kriel with great interest. Many will remember that he was taken to task for an 'honest' blog post that highlighted some of the inefficiencies that were resulting from purely race based appointments in South African media companies. In short, he was charged with misconduct for his blog post, and threatened with being fired from his job.
Kriel is something of a loose canon to say the least. I have not always agreed with his points of view, and I certainly am not as paranoid about the leadership issues we face in South Africa as he is. However, the converse is also true - I have often agreed with his sentiments, and admired his courage to speak out as a minority in a nation where the minority is often vilified as racist simply for stating facts. I have had to face similar abuse (within the Church) when I have taken an unpopular stance on moral, ethical, theological, and structural issues. It is a weak person's retort to fall back onto race or gender as a first retort when one cannot offer a credible counter argument right away. If one considers the issue at hand, interacts with the persons who hold a particular point of view, and then comes to the point of discovering that he or she is racist or sexist, that is an entirely different matter. However, I have seen far too often how a speaker is simply silenced and dismissed, without any engagement, as a racist for hold an unpopular or challenging point of view.
I find such 'gut responses' both offensive, and informative. It offends me because it is seldom true in the first instance, and particularly very seldom true in the sense that it is implied (as an out and out attack on a particular racial grouping!) It is informative in that it tells me a great deal about the insecurities of the individual or institution that makes the false allegation - in some sense 'playing the race card' (as it has become known in South Africa) is an act of racism itself! How does a 'white South African' respond, as a minority with a history of racial abuse, to a disenfranchised black majority who have a right to feel slighted and angered? When you are labeled as a racist there is no other option but to fight (with a vastly unequal power base) to prove yourself true, or simply to retreat. Retreat, in my experience, is the most common response. Labeling someone a racist (because of his or her race) assumes that the opinions of the 'previously advantaged' must be subjugated and disregarded not because of their content, but because of the race of the person who is making them... That is an abuse of power.
You see, racism has more to do with power than it has to do with race. Difference is an accepted reality - that perspective was the gift the Bantu Steve Biko, James Cone, and Bishop Desmond Tutu taught us! We need to appreciate our diversity and uniqueness! Black consciousness intended to instill in black South Africans a pride in being black! The 'rainbow nation' is so magnificently beautiful because of the diversity of the colours that make up the rainbow. It is not expected that the colours should be blended into one monotone, no, they need to admired, celebrate, and accentuated like the richness of diversity that makes up the vast array of colours in an exquisite work of art.
Being 'white' however is not an easy thing in South Africa today! You see, racism comes to the fore when power is added to race. When one takes one's race and uses it to subvert the rights and dignity of others (when one uses one's power, whether it be the power of education, the power of wealth, the power of numbers, or any other power, to devalue the worth and dignity of another, simply because they are of a different race, that is racism). In recent years I have often felt prejudiced against when I have sat in meetings where appointments are to be made and well qualified white candidates are put aside because of their race. I have at times been told to be silent, to keep my opinions to myself, and not to think that I have any right to contribute because I am white, and white people in South Africa should not speak since we have had our turn. Of course such actions do represent to a small minority of the responses that I face every day, and they are certainly not characteristic of the Church, or of the views of the majority of South Africans! Yet, when they do occur, they still sting.
Well, here's the good news! I still believe that South Africa has a wonderful future! I am saddened when I hear of the polarization of black and white South Africans (such as the legitimate concerns of the University of the Free State racist video which was made by 4 white students). I believe that we are a nation that is built on miracles, grace, compassion and magnanimous acceptance. You only need to read Nelson Mandela's 'Long walk to freedom' to understand what an incredible miracle it is that we transitioned without a full scale civil war from Apartheid rule to oligarchy (let's not fool ourselves that there are any democracies in the modern world!) without bloodshed!
I hold firmly to our diversity of culture, and the general populace's willingness to face hardship, struggle, and put up with very little change over the last 14 years, while the upper echelons of black empowerment business and politics enrich themselves and squash corruption.
I do believe that we, as a people, have the fortitude to overcome this evil. I believe that God desires it, and that there are enough people of faith who long to fully know the just, pure, equitable, and miraculous God from whom all true and harmonious living comes. And in this climate such a reality is sure to come to pass - but of course we will need to work hard, together with God, if we wish to see it birthed in our lifetime.
If I did not believe it I would long since have left South Africa. In truth there have been some very tempting offers elsewhere in the world, and there have been times where my resolve has wavered. I almost took up a post in the US that would have started in July this year.
But no, I believe, and we (my family and I) choose to stay! We are South Africans, for better or for worse.
Of course, there are those who have first-hand, and brutal, experience of the new kind of abuse and oppression that is starting to raise its head in South Africa - I hear whispers of it all the time. There is an incredible pressure in a 'one party state' to 'tow the party line'.
Here is Llewellyn's last blog post - it is disturbing, frightening, depressing, and clearly emotional. [I am fairly certain that it will not be kept on their site for very long, so I have copied it in full. If you find this post in a few weeks time and still want to read his post, please email me and I'll send you a copy]. Here is another damning perspective from the Sunday Herald...
I pray that Kriel is wrong. What do you think?
Technorati tags: racism, black and white, Llewellyn Kriel, Jacob Zuma, thugs
Saturday, March 8, 2008 at 8:36AM 
I love old photographs, and I am particularly partial to photographs that deal with the 'underside' of culture. There is little doubt that being a leather clad biker in 1960's Middle America was pretty much as savory as being a machine gun totting Nigerian in the centre of Johannesburg today...
Cowboy and Sparky, two pals on bikes. They've just been to a motorcycle race in Schererville, Indiana, and their girlfriends will soon get off work from the Dairy Queen. It is November 1965, and CowBoy - Irvin P. Dunsdon, who uses the capital B to this day - is 23 years old. He feels he's on top of the world.
