JONATHAN JANSEN | We need to talk about coloured racism

In a relatively short time a number of alleged racist incidents in schools gained public attention (most do not). At Jeppe Girls learners were disciplined for highlights in their hair and apparently there was inconsistency in the application of the rules, the black girls complained. Unbelievably, the school has a hair chart. “Any colours that are not on the colour chart are not permissible unless it’s one’s natural hair.” I have to ask, what is it about white schools and hair?

At Pretoria Girls High, known for its own controversial hair policies a few years ago, there was apparently a WhatsApp group of white girls who made critical remarks about black girls in the form of ‘us’ and ‘them’ commentaries.

It was, however, the incident at Pinelands High School that really caught the attention of the public. A group of grade 8 coloured boys bullied incoming African students and locked them behind a caged enclosure before selling them off at an imagined slave auction. One offered bitcoin as currency while prices ranged from R50,000 to R100,000 per slave. Hockey sticks were mentioned and a substitute teacher was allegedly involved. This was clearly not the normal white vs black racist outrage, and we should take a closer look.

And please don’t tell me coloured people can’t be racist.

What you have here is a combination of racism and ignorance on the part of the grade 8 boys. They clearly do not realise that it was people later classified coloured such as Malay slaves who were central to the institution of slavery. But there is something else going on besides ignorance. These boys categorised themselves and their peers into two groups: the Africans to be put into the caged area and the coloureds with the power to sell them to the highest bidder. The coloured boys believe they are better than their schoolmates, the Africans, and therefore worthy of such denigration even in a place of learning.

And please don’t tell me coloured people can’t be racist. I have been at the receiving end of coloured vitriol all my life as a darker-skinned version of a category that should not have existed in the first place. Apartheid did its work well. And do not tell me about Trevor Manuel and Cheryl Carolus, political heroes to all of us. Not every coloured classified person belonged to the UDF or fought for racial equality. Most really believe that they are coloured and their social and cultural aspirations are upward - that is to be like whites and to be accepted by whites. In other words, to be African is a degrading step down, a lesser human. Somebody who could be sold at a slave auction, in other words.

If you are in grade 8, you’re about 14 years old. You have hardly lived. So where does this stomach-churning racism come from? From other adults like parents, relatives, the peer group, the church and the mosque and so on Nobody is born hating another, Nelson Mandela perceptively taught us. Implying that if racism is learnt, it can be unlearnt.

The irony that this happened at Pinelands High is that this is one of the more progressive schools in the province. They have worked hard on transformation and that explains why it is one of the more racially integrated former white public schools in the country. Pinelands has set high standards for academics and for decency. But it has a problem that I had also discovered as a university leader. Every year you bring in a new group of students who have not yet been affected by the antiracism programmes in place or embodied the culture of their new school. Grade 8s only arrived the other day and therefore it is unfair to put all of the responsibility for this grievous incident on the school.

I would start with the parents and ask a few simple questions.

What the hell were you teaching your children about themselves and others, in this case Africans? What language do you use in your family and your social circles when you talk about black South Africans? Do you bring into your family and friendship community those who do not look like you? Have you ever, in front of your children, confronted bigots in the broader family or among your friends? Or do you let a racist comment about Africans slide or worse, laugh with the perpetrators?

And by the way, if like some of my in-laws you are among the same people who sit in the front pews in church on a Sunday, stop performing these holy observances. You make a mockery of our faith and our common humanity.