Luister might be the most important insertion into university transformation debates for a very long time to come. The 34-minute video-documentary tells of 32 black students' experiences of race relations on and around campuses in Stellenbosch. It is gut-wrenching, the accounts of regular and routine racism that chips away daily at the humanity and integrity of black students in former white institutions. There is no rancour in the voices of these students, none of the ugly, retaliatory racism we have seen on other campuses. In calm, deliberate voices these young people tell a compelling story that demands our attention; Luister (listen), in other words.Long isolated from the mainstream struggles for transformation taking place in the rest of the country, the Stellenbosch community has been preoccupied with debates about the Afrikaans language and the extent to which English should be introduced as a language of instruction. It became, over time, a vicious debate that carried heavy leadership costs. Yet what this rather circular set of debates eclipsed was the very deep and unresolved racism that coursed through the veins of post-school institutions in the otherwise beautiful Eikestad. Until some enterprising students produced Luister.The documentary raises some important issues. To begin with, white Afrikaans students in this part of the world have not yet been confronted openly and directly with their crude, unvarnished racism. I am not surprised at all that much of this drama plays out at an agricultural college; many white students who come from farms - not all of them - emerge from environments in rural South Africa where race relations remain largely unchanged. There is the farmer, middle class, educated and powerful, and there is the farm labourer, poor, often illiterate, and powerless.For white children who come from such insular environments onto college or university campuses, the presence of educated black persons with their own voice and authority is bewildering. There is the compulsion to put such persons in their place. And one speaker after the other on Luister gives testimony of how this happens - abusing a black student who dances with a white woman; tapping a black restaurant worker on the head in the presence of others; attacking a student of colour with the "k" word. These are not random acts of racism - they are intended to remind the newcomers onto campuses who is in charge. In colleges where blacks are not yet a demographic majority, this is the most dangerous period in their lives, as the research in my book Leading Change (Routledge, 2015) demonstrates.What these stories also bring to light is the silly notion of ownership - as blacks you come into "our" institution so if you do not like it here go to UCT or UWC; if you do not like "our" language, you do not belong here. Many would have thought this kind of jingoism in public institutions had long disappeared; not in Stellenbosch or for that matter on some university campuses in the north.The problem is quite easily resolved through leadership, but that is clearly lacking at Elsenburg college and the surrounding community of Stellenbosch. It is clear from the student voices that they were not listened to and, where they raised issues with lecturers and management, they were not heard. This is a recipe for disaster, and if this continues then, as black student numbers increase, alienated students will become angry students who will become violent students. All because the leaders rendered themselves impotent by remaining trapped inside their ethnocentric deafness.As you watch the video, notice how easily the bigotry of campus and city mesh, the racism in the classroom or the library is indistinguishable from the racism in the outside restaurant or on the dance floor.Where a college should be producing student leadership that challenges and transforms the racism of a small town or city, it fails miserably in its duty when this is not done.Now the politicians want to become involved, by issuing autonomous institutions with summonses to appear in parliament. This is a bad omen. Colleges and universities must direct and accelerate transformation themselves; by not doing so they encourage the government to cross a sacred line. In the meantime, the worst thing leaders can do is to continue to be tone deaf to the voices of the students. Listen to them, respond to them, show them evidence not of policies but results, and once every student - and lecturer - knows of your zero-tolerance policy on racism, and any still offends, make a public example...