Against Racism.

Written By Sivuyile Tshalana.

What is racism according to Oxford Dictionary? It is the unfair treatment of people who belong to a different race group. According to human kind it is any form of unfair treatment received from a different race, either on school grounds, in an office environment, public places, playgrounds and on social platforms. Unfortunately racism has dominated throughout the globe, and it does not only exist in our country but it is a worldwide disease.

As it is said no-one is ever born with hate, it is a behaviour issue that is installed either by your parents, family or your peers, and it grows to mature and outline any normal behaviour. Racism starts by differentiating the difference in colour leading to identification of Black, Indian, White and Coloured that is why it is upon parents to breed their children by installing love and the importance of treating people the same way regardless of their skin colour. Parents play a vital role in their children's upbringing, they should educate their children on the importance of solidarity, humanity and unity, because no-one is more superior than anybody in the eyes of the law and God. It all starts with simple things in life, such as a smile, conversing, loving and respecting a person of different race and then relationships will be easy to evolve. Building any form of a relationship with someone of a different race should be a culture that is practiced on a daily basis. Most people ignorantly blame White people of being racists whereas even Black, Coloureds and Indians are also racists. This contagious disease lives inside, most people of all different races. People are oblivious to the fact that racism starts with the minor actions such as arguing over who was first in the queue at the store, who bumped literally your shoulder at the stadium and who's child has brighter grades at awards. I mean typical examples are endless and every individual is responsible in making a change.

Through unity all signs of racism can be eradicated, because there would not be any excuses to create room for such behaviour. With the influence from our leaders in our communities, counselors, priests at church, chiefs, kings, teachers and government racism can be fought against. The target in fighting racism should be the youth, which should be taught about the history of colonialism and the impact it brought upon our country years ago. They should understand how freedom came about and the meaning of peace. It is through the knowledge of our countries history we can achieve a racism free community, a racism free society and a racism free country. It becomes something that people are oblivious to as they cannot realize their racial acts, because it is what they were taught and how they were brought up to be.

However social platforms too sometimes promote racism with the messages, statuses, videos and pictures they post, and this all comes back to the youth. Most people do not realize the emotional abuse racism carries and the disturbance it brings in the mental well-being of another individual. No human being is ever okay with being classified, especially because of the colour of their skin. Racial acts discourage people, they demean – make them feel worthless, because of being classified, and never recover from that.

Racism is experienced by everyone, there is no specific race that can be held accountable, funny enough or ironically even Black tribes have racial acts amongst each other which is called tribalism. People feel they are superior more than others, because of the educational level, family background, family status, financial status, position at work, because of the influence social platforms and social media. Most individuals believe or were taught that White people are the only race that practices racial behaviour, because of the history in our country (South Africa). Individuals should stop being ignorant and start making changes first individually before pointing fingers. Races should identity racial behaviours within their races, before blaming or accusing other races and the change we would achieve would be very tangible.

The law can only try to govern the country in the public eye but not on the internal behaviour of an individual. Laws can be drawn and set but if our leaders do not practice them there is really no change being done. Racism is more than spoken word, it includes invisible barriers which can be a very serious issue whereby people are ignorant about or turn a blind eye towards it. That is why it is evident that racism is a choice one makes, because no-one was born with hate in their heart or colour to their sight, proof to this can be seen in the behaviour of infants as they play gratefully with each other, the love they share and the warmth they give one another, despite their race.

It is time that we as a country, as a community, as a society to unite together and practice the culture of living together as humans. Despite where each racial group comes from, we need to be taught how to love, how to respect, how to care and how to live with one another. There should be no room for any comments of any particular ethnic group, name calling, intimidation, bullying and verbal abuse. People should not be silent about racism, they need to voice their opinions and let it be heard. It is in the actions that racism can be fought against. Let’s stop racism, it does not suit us.