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On this BEE/non-racialism thing, allow me to use an anecdotal example of my own experience as a disabled person:
In 2002, I had a stroke, which put me in a wheelchair because the left-side of my body didn't (and still doesn't really) work. As a young boy... (1)
On this BEE/non-racialism thing, allow me to use an anecdotal example of my own experience as a disabled person:
In 2002, I had a stroke, which put me in a wheelchair because the left-side of my body didn't (and still doesn't really) work. As a young boy... (1)
I received a flood of support from friends, family and school. I had access to doctors, physiotherapists and all the treatment in the world. I had medical aid. I NEVER had to use my disability to get university placement/a job. Not bc I'm some kind of brave survivor, but bc...(2)
even though my parents weren't particularly wealthy, I went to a former model C school, did extra-curricular activities , studied for 6 years and am basically protected from the trauma of poverty. My disability is invisible to me and everyone around me. But why? (3)
The answer is simple. I had a social safety net (my relatively better off home environment and v good medical treatment). More so, people accepted me. They don't bat an eyelid helping me tie my shoelaces, including me in various physical activities where I slow them down... (4)
among other things. People gravitate towards compassion. They recognise that I'm a disabled man through no fault of my own... that my circumstances dictate that I need help sometimes. And it's a personal battle with my dignity every time I have to ask for help. (5)
This begs the question; why do we not extend the same level of compassion to downtrodden people of colour, who's race serves as a far greater barrier in SA than my disability ever could? Why are we so quick to consider poverty to be a consequence of character flaws? (6)
What's the difference between me and, say, a guy like me that never had my home environment, supportive friends, family, & a good education, bc of the circumstances he was born into - a consequence of race? The difference is that there's nobody to blame for my circumstances...(7)
White guilt is a thing. It lives in all of us. I feel shit that my prospects in life are far greater than the prospects for someone born into abject poverty. And it sucks to have to compare race to a disability. But nobody wants to hear that their privileges (8)
are not a consequence of simply being lucky (or not unlucky like me), that the lottery of birth is rigged in their favour. Change your perspective on redress & transformation. Battle BEE for being a failed, ineffective policy. BUT then come up with something better that can (9)
actually achieve the goals BEE is geared towards. Stop calling it racist policy, it's not. It's classism &, rather than threaten your privileged position, it consolidates it!
Argue for class-based policies/holistic approaches. Labeling transformation as racist is deplorable. (10)
Argue for class-based policies/holistic approaches. Labeling transformation as racist is deplorable. (10)
