JONATHAN JANSEN | This is why it was so wrong to call Maimane an ‘experiment’

In a book on The Firsts, we research the lives of those South Africans who became the first black principals of all-white schools. It is a mix of joy and pain hearing these men and women recount their stories of coming into former white institutions. Joy, because they were breaking down the walls of racial prejudice that had defended separate schooling for children who, for more than a century, were taught by white teachers and led by white principals. The new appointees carried with them a sense of history as pioneers of a new non-racial order in a democratic country.

But there was also so much pain to bear. The assumption of incompetence; that the appointment represented unearned privilege; that racial accommodation had to be made for the sake of the blacks; and that a black principal had displaced someone more qualified for the position. Such is the nature of blind prejudice that none of these claims or assumptions need to be true, for they serve a different function — to reassure those who had lost the security of racially protected labour with the end of apartheid. Put differently, to accept the possibility that the black principal is the better candidate is to collapse one of the most cherished myths of white racism — that the white person is, by definition, the superior appointment.

This is what my friend Tony Leon simply cannot grasp — that his comment on Mmusi Maimane as “an experiment” in his appointment as the first black head of the opposition DA fits snugly within this narrative that his appointment could not have been meritorious. It was a costly slip that unsettled many of us who were “the firsts” as university vice-chancellors, chairpersons of boards, leaders of NGOs and principals of schools, positions that, until recently, were held exclusively by white men and women. The word “experiment” means taking a chance, enduring a risk or making an exception rather than a worthy appointment, end of story. It is, to be blunt, a terrible insult.

We found in our principals’ study that the daily taunts, the passing comments, the isolation, the straight insults took an emotional toll on ‘the firsts’, but most of them pressed on.

We found in our principals’ study that the daily taunts, the passing comments, the isolation, the straight insults took an emotional toll on “the firsts”, but most of them pressed on. Those “experiment-type” comments came from parents, teachers, alumni and even members of the governing body that made the appointment. In response, the black principals would work harder and do demonstrably better than their predecessors in their determination to prove the racists wrong. It did not matter, for ingrained bigotry does not yield to empirical evidence; in fact, it does not even recognise its language of disregard.

That said, we need to be careful not to give bigots power over our emotions, whether as black people, women, people with disabilities, foreigners and so on. Competence – and incompetence – are normally distributed across human populations. As a university leader I have, over the years, been saddled with utterly incompetent white academics and utterly incompetent black academics. I have hired exceptionally talented black scholars and exceptionally talented white scholars. Here’s the thing: none of the people I had a say in hiring were ever regarded as experiments, black or white. In fact, even now I put in 18 hours a day to ensure they succeed once selected and I could not care less what they look like, how they pray, whom they love, where they come from or what language they speak.

Experiments are for rats, not humans — and even with rats I am beginning to doubt the value of experimentation.

Be warned: to be paralysed by the stupidity of others is to give them undue power over your emotions, your intellect and your ambitions. Call out the bigotry, but then move on and make your mark, whether in sports, culture, education or science. It is hard, I know, the constant gnawing at your heels, the disparaging remarks, the unfair assessments. I have, however, learnt in my profession that the most effective response to negativity is to always deliver superior work and to set the standard for your achievements in global terms rather than be preoccupied with some local benchmarks of success. This is what I learnt from Trevor Noah in comedy, Pretty Yende in opera, Marizanne Kapp in cricket, Terry Pheto in acting, Ryan Nefdt in philosophy, Percy Tau in soccer — and the list of outstanding young international talent is endless.

The country is moving on. Mercifully, “the firsts” will in time become the seconds and the thirds. Let those who choose to remain trapped in their haunted houses of the past experiment with their own ugly ghosts in the mirror.