In 2017 while I was doing music I went to record a song in a white guy’s studio in Sandton. The whole building was owned by his dad, his dad came to check up on us, he greeted us and asked us nicely if we needed anything and had a short conversation with his son. What got to me was that at the end of their small conversation his dad looked at me and asked me “is he teaching you anything? Are you learning?” Now that got to me, I wasn’t there to learn anything from the guy, I was the vocalist, I came to record and actually teach the white producer how to mix my song, not to learn anything from the white man. Some white people are racist, some are not, but most make these offensive statements (even if they mean well) so let’s teach you how to not communicate with us:
1. “I can’t be a racist, I have a black…” – Whether you have a black friend, black maid, black gardener, it’s nobody’s business. I have a Zimbabwean neighbour but that doesn’t mean I can’t be xenophobic. If you think your black friend is a guilty pleasure then you are as racist as the people who went around the world “discovering” (COLONISING) countries.
2. “It was a long time ago, get over it” – If you think apartheid should be a forgive and forget type of situation then awukho serious. Apartheid happened to black people, it didn’t just happen. Apartheid affects the CURRENT livelihood of black people, apartheid affects the CURRENT public education and public health systems (which are largely designed for black people). So if white people don’t understand that black people are still physically, emotionally and financially affected by the regime then I suggest you move into places like Ivory Park, Diepsloot and Alexandra and see if you could last a year without complaining on Hello Peter.
3. “Even a monkey can do your job” – Okay, that’s a double blow. I used to work at a call center where we assisted people get numbers of businesses, schools, organisations, etc. Not every number was listed on the system but that somehow became the agent’s fault, I don’t know how. My job was to just sit there in front of that Dell computer and read the number of the business if it’s been listed, if it wasn’t listed then I was somehow responsible for the number, responsible for the computer, responsible for the Lions losing a rugby game. Chill mlungu, chill.
4. “You are lazy” – NO! Black people are not lazy. Black people are the ones who put their dreams on hold to work for racists just to feed their families. Black kids don’t kill their fathers for life policies. Black people don’t know what a trust fund is. Black people have to write exaggerated truths on NSFAS affidavits to try and get the education they honestly can’t afford. Black people walk to train stations at 4am, risking their lives, just to work for peanuts. Black women ignore their health and safety by putting a mbawula in front of their faces and faces of their children the whole day all in the name of business. Black people are not lazy, we just can’t afford the American dream that is sold to us through self development books and movies produced by the white man. Our hustle is different, our challenges are extreme. In Rivonia the struggle is load shedding, but in Ivory Park and Soweto we have load shedding and “load reduction” which happens every two days and we have endure 6 hours of no power and sometimes twice a day. I wrote this article in the dark for your information, it’s the 7th time this week. And don’t get me started on the transformer that blows up almost every week and Eskom promised to come on the 1st of August. We are still DIYing out here. But we are lazy, okay.
5. “You are racist” – Okay, let’s stop pretending. Black people can’t be racist, at least towards white people. What do black people have? Ama piano? What about the wealth to keep us out of prison? What about a police force that serves and protects us instead of terrorise and force us to buy our freedom? Where’s the land to say “no white people allowed”? Black people are racist? Racism is power, racism is having a law that governs the majority and puts them in slums. Black people are racist? When black people are sick and tired they kneel down instead of acting out. Black people can’t be racist.
No jokes today, sorry.
Mthokozisi Nkmabule
Leave a Reply