Fear aversive racism more

Gundo Vhusani Maswime: The recent upheaval surrounding Steve Hofmeyr and Annelie Botes is not so much a surprise.

When the nationalists included separate development as an election issue about 50 years ago, they won an election. The white community, Afrikaners in particular, knew exactly what the policy was about and they continued to support the Nationalist Party government.

The hibernating of a belief because it is no longer popular does not mean it is abandoned. Scholars of sociology will tell you that racism is a normal feature of society.

De-institutionalisation of racism has gone some way to move racism from institutions to the individual.

Many racists do not even know that they are racists, they just honestly believe that black people are not good enough on certain things.

Racism emerged in the 16th century as a result of European expansionism and has persisted to the present as a socially constructed system of values to justify the evil of human exploitation for socioeconomic advantage.

Racism is the outward manifestation of an inward system of values deliberately designed to structure privilege by means of an objective and unequal treatment of people, for the purpose of social advantage over scarce resources. This values system justifies power of position by placing a negative meaning and value on perceived or actual biological and cultural differences.

Racism is divided in to two forms. Dominative racism, which is the conspicuous form of racism where the reprobate acts out bigoted beliefs that depict "the open flame of racism". Many Afrikaners in their simple nature fall into this category.

Aversive racism, on the other hand, is a more subtle and circumlocutory form associated with more sophisticated whites. The English are typically in this category. It is a good thing that in the interests of harmony and sanity, the public is intolerant towards the open flame of racism.

It is the aversive form of racism that we should fear. Progressive white s such as

Jo-ann Downs, Hellen Zille and many more who would have been outvoted during the dark years must begin to unteach the next generation so that we can minimise what we cannot eradicate.