Race and "transformation"

So, it's time to broach the thorny topic of race. Unavoidably, due to its history, South Africa society is highly racialized. Discourse at all levels – media coverage and conversation, government documents and statistics, political rhetoric, and daily individual interaction – is framed in race terms and replete with race references. I find this a welcome contrast to home, where race issues are often discussed, at least in “polite” society, mainstream culture, and the academic realm (read “white dominated” in all three cases) in such general, indirect, or politically correct terms as to be nearly completely deprived of their urgent relevance to the daily life.

The ways in which modern (a.k.a. “post-apartheid”) South Africa is racist, however, is a more complicated question. Certainly, institutionalized racism endures (and parallels with the United States are unavoidable); patterns in housing and educational access are stark examples of this. At the same time, many South Africans, including many of its youth (those in the so-called “post-apartheid” generation,) seem quite committed to living out the reconciliatory tone and promise set out in during the dismantling of apartheid and the birth of the democratic “rainbow” nation. (For anyone unfamiliar with South Africa’s constitution, its preamble is worth a read.) Currently, the desire to host a safe, successful World Cup and support of South Africa’s national soccer team, Bafana Bafana (victorious over Zimbabwe last night!), are being used as rallying causes for national unity and lauded as opportunities to showcase South Africa’s harmonious racial integration. As much as South Africa is a work in progress, the ambitious project of building a new, free, and equal society (generally referred to as “transformation”)is moving forward, and the World Cup presents an undeniable opportunity to advance it.

Working against this progress are some familiar bugaboos of dismantling institutional racism. For example, the Black Economic Empowerment program of affirmative action in the business arena has led to accusations (and realities) of tokenism, reverse-discrimination, and corruption. Also, past racism and discrimination, while very real, make convenient scapegoats for a government that is not managing to bring basic service delivery to large segments of the country’s poorest citizens. Some populist politicians have stirred up racial tension with inflammatory rhetoric (ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, for example) that reinforces negative relations, exacerbates division, and, at its most extreme, stirs up fear, anger, and hatred (even leading to violence). At the same time, those opposing change (almost exclusively members of the formerly privileged racial groups: Whites, Indians, and Coloureds) have been quick to resort to racist explanations for everything from political corruption and business failure to poor educational results and even losses on the Cricket field.

No longer insulated by apartheid, South Africa’s whites are now free to be unemployed and to slip into poverty and indigence, and a few are doing so. That said, the white minority continues to enjoy disproportionate wealth and access to educational and other opportunity. This privileged position is being maintained while at the same time South African blacks make considerable gains as a group, although these gains are largely being enjoyed by an small portion of the majority population.

According to a newspaper summary, a study just released by the Bureau of Market Research at Unisa ("The largest university in South Africa and one of the largest distance education institutions in the world" - according to itself) reports that white households make up 10.8% of the population, yet accounted for 40.2% of consumption expenditure in 2008, down from 48.1% in 1993. During the same period, the share of consumption expenditure by black households rose from 38.6% to 47.1%. The remaining 2008 expenditure was done by Coloured and Asian households, at 7.8% and 4.9% respectively. The article did not give population percentages for non-whites. (“Spending patterns reveal past inequity,” Cape Times, January 15, 2010, p. 14)

The "transformation" of South Africa is indeed still in process.