A major factor in the fickleness of a race and the stereotypes thereof lies entrenched in the dogma of Apartheid (separate development of the races). Race as a social construct is based on a premise of homogeneity, discernible features and traits, where racial distinction is seen as a biological fact, which can be used to label an entire community or group of people. This practice is a farce upon the human race when confronted with the simultaneous racial duality that is the hallmark of coloured people. The impact and repercussions of race fascism should not be underestimated on the psyche of people. An aftermath can be seen in the struggle some people have with the notion that coloureds are seen as black under a new dispensation, as a matter of political convenience or a quick-fix to a community afflicted with a social and cultural identity crises.
Having black blood pumping through your veins and living with the struggle does not colour you black. Even though the people of mixed racial decent are labeled as being black by the international community. Having white blood pumping through your arteries and sharing white culinary habits does not taint you white. The nature and history of South African society dictates that people of mixed racial decent were always categorically separated from blacks and whites.
Succumbing to the popular MTV-type opinion that decrees that if you are not white, then you are automatically black is not an option. Whether this is some covert ploy to maintain the integrity of institutionalized binary race thought of there being only two sides to the race coin or possibly, an effort to avoid addressing the connecting fiber of a seemingly white and black world – people of colour can only stake their tenure of the future by accepting their diverse cultural and genetic imprints. Coloured people are neither black nor white. If coloured people are white or black, then the apartheid government has certainly succeeded in robbing us of our identity. If black and white is the only two sides of the coin, then surely the colored is the coin.
In South Africa, the coloured identity is much more established and insular than in any other part of the world. This semblance of a coloured identity is just enough for the way forward. Beyond Identity, is a concept of racial deconstruction with the aim to dissect the precepts and borders of racial thought that continues to artificially divide. This patronizing concept of colouredness, a vestige of supremist creation, only serves to alienate people of mixed heritage in terms of unity, self-respect, self-worth and vision. Obliviously this genealogy of a colored people could be a valid account but it is irrelevant. It is irrelevant as it can just easily be the genealogy of so-called white and so-called black people. Show me a pure bred and surely a human being would be depicted, a pure mix-breed. The stigma of being white, black or colored and colouredness has tainted and stunted the development of mankind. Tainted once but now the colorful collage are no more the derelicts of society but the ilk of a new and better tomorrow.
Being exclusive and supremist is the way of the past, the future holds that we meet each half-way at all cost to prevent another undue bloodshed. Any form of militant and radical belief in a dogma is proof enough of the rape and pillage of freedom. Freedom at the hands of bloodshed is the way of the past, freedom of the future lies with you, saying “No more segregation of any sort”. We as people, as individuals have to choose to re-address the prejudices and economic disparities that are still rife in our society.
No more segregation forged in the trenches of a currency. The bartering of the human race at any cost is a blight on mankind. The trade in humans led to slavery, to fuel ancient and modern economies, which ultimately is the cornerstone of many basic human rights violations. For every human right there is a corresponding discrimination that is either legitimized or practiced somewhere in the world. An ism that divides either along racial, economic, social, religious or political lines which directly impacts in the way people respect and treat each other. Racism, for the lack of a better word, is 99% in the mind and 1% reality. Racism confined to color is a fallacy. Racism in truth is based in economics, but manifest in ethnic, cultural, regional and spiritual (to name a few) exclusions. History proves this over and over. Being American, being South African, being British is not only about identity or nationalism but another form of racism.
Economics attached to a deviant trait of man, wanting to control others, are responsible for the poor relations between mankind. There is no suggestion that the economic system should be abolished or abandoned, on the contrary it should be revisited by a world truth and reconciliation council investigating the intention of man in relation to principles of fair economics and racial profiling; and how the practice of past economic (and foreign) policies or treaties have lead to war and division between man; and ultimately draw up an international economic and foreign charter with the interest of all people at the core.
A desired result would be that the laws that protect the rich from the poor, and the poor from the rich would be re-written to protect mankind. A classless society I hear you shout in dismay. Yes and No! Yes, as man has allowed economics and greed to destroy and decay the moral fiber upon which his existence depends. And no as your conception of a classless society, is based on a prior knowledge of class. If the concept class did not exist in the first place, you would not have known about class thus free and equal.
>> Ross Rayners <<
