‘Rainbow Nation is not reality now‚’ McKaiser tells social cohesion conference

21 April 2016 - 15:14 By Matthew Savides

Terms like “non-racialism” and “Rainbow Nation” belong in a linguistic dustbin and should not guide South African unity. Speaking at the eThekwini Municipality's social cohesion conference on Thursday morning‚ author‚ columnist and political analyst Eusebius McKaiser said: “Non-racialism is the enemy of justice. Non-racialism is a distraction from what we need to do to get an equitable society.“I'm a sceptic about non-racialism. I think the concept belongs in the same linguistic dustbin as “Rainbow Nation” - it makes us all feel warm and fuzzy when we're not thinking‚ like slipping into a hot bath in winter and then‚ before you know it‚ the water is ice-cold.“It is not reality now‚ and it's not the ideal we should be striving towards.”He said it also led to dangerous thinking of South Africa as a “colour-blind” society‚ when the country should rather begin to deal with the challenges of its fractured nature by being real about the “lived differences between black and white South Africans”.Listen to audio of the speech below: test - TMG Digital/Sunday Times..

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