Developing legislation to outlaw racism alone will remain inadequate and blunt if the material basis of racism is not destroyed, writes Sonwabile Ngxiza.
Johannesburg - This week, many South Africans were still valorising the judgment handed down by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng on the SA Revenue Service racism saga.
Justice Mogoeng lamented that “very serious racial incidents hardly ever trigger a fittingly firm and sustained disapproving response. Even in those rare instances where some revulsion is expressed in the public domain, it is but momentary and soon fizzles out”.
This past week, a disgusting video of two white farmers forcing a black worker into a coffin surfaced and went viral.
The incident in which the perpetrators, Theo Jackson and Willem Oosthuizen, beat and forcibly put Victor Mlotshwa in a coffin, took place at Middelburg - apparently on August 27.
The pair appeared in court on Wednesday and withdrew their bail application for fear of their lives.
The video clip will leave many people with feelings of exasperation and revulsion, while others might act astounded but their own conduct shows little respect for the dignity of black people.
Nevertheless, the indignation about such a shameless attack on the dignity of black people is escalating and it might unravel our racial fault-lines.
Cases of naked, undisguised, often savage racism are re-emerging in our democratic dispensation too often, which means these are symptoms of a much deeper reality.
In another incident in recent years a white farmer, Mark Scott-Crossley, threw a black worker, Nelson Chisale, into a lion’s enclosure in Limpopo.
Another shot a black farmworker and claimed that he had mistaken the worker for a baboon.
The cases of violent racial attacks are too numerous to count.
It’s clear that this is not just a pathological problem but more importantly a symbolic and material reality in our country.
It is the material dimension that requires radical action to eradicate its deep roots in the fabric of our society.
This dimension is first of all economic, but it is also a cultural, social, intellectual and even technological form of domination.
The material dimension is embedded in the history of colonialism and apartheid.
Racial oppression in this country and the formerly colonised world is well-documented.
The colonising mission had a set of objectives including, but not limited to, land dispossession and economic subjugation.
In the South African context, under colonialism of a special type, racial oppression and exclusion were systematically designed, institutionally enforced and legitimated by the oppressor who occupied 87 percent of the territory in the land of the oppressed.
Despite great strides to reverse racial oppression after the 1994 democratic breakthrough, the damage remains deep and the contours of racial oppression are visible.
In the lives of many black South Africans, the visibility and the pain of racism are encountered and experienced daily in social life (pubs, parks, schools), places of work and the professions, business and so on.
The racist attitudes conspire to undermine the aspirations of the united, non-racist, non-sexist, and prosperous South Africa envisioned in the constitution.
Discourse on racism and race relations has been mounted on the agenda by recent cases of racist attacks, racist rants (think Penny Sparrow and Judge Mabel Jansen) and the demands for transformation and decolonisation of education within #FeesMustFall.
The irritation, frustration and resentment are leading many to question the wisdom of choosing the path of reconciliation and the validity of the aspirations of a rainbow nation.
Visions and imaginings of inclusion and integration have been undermined by growing poverty and inequality.
South African society is caught in a double-bind of attempting to realise inclusion and racial harmony in an economic environment that is structurally untransformed and resultantly reproduces poverty and inequality.
While racist attitudes are inimical to the spirit of the constitution, developing legislation to outlaw racist insults alone will remain inadequate and blunt if the material basis of racism is not destroyed.
I agree with Nelson Mandela that no one is born inherently racist. Racism is a social construct.
The perpetrators of the brutal and vile racial attacks wield economic power over the economically weak.
The escalation of racism ought to propel an acceleration in the quest for change in the production relations - or wave goodbye to the racial harmony and social justice for which we yearn.
* Ngxiza is SACP Cape Metro deputy secretary. He writes in his personal capacity.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
The Sunday Independent