On reversed racism

[mahnmut]

 It's Racism/Discrimination week on TP and this is coming timely.

Julius Malema, the leader of the African National Congress Youth League (the organization of which I'm member), has been put in the middle of a row over singing a controversial song from the apartheid times, whose title Dubula iBhunu means 'Kill the Boer'. There have been a number of complaints from human rights organizations and allegations that this is hate speech, and the High Court decided that singing the song was unconstitutional as it allegedly provoked attacks on farms owned by whites in the interior of the country, resulting in several bloody murders (a persistent problem here). Meanwhile, Malema claimed the song is merely part of the blacks' heritage and should be sung in respect for the history of the Struggle.

Here's the text of the song, with translation from isiZulu. You may like to make your own conclusions, at least taking the text by face value. (Of course there are many additional layers wrapped around songs of this sort, mostly of historical and social character).

The ANC party which has been ruling South Africa since the fall of apartheid, was also accused of turning a blind eye to this scandal and giving a free pass to the leader of one of its main coalition partners and political allies.

This brings the question: could racism be rather a means of oppression on a minority by a majority, regardless of its color (as opposed to inherent prejudice of bigots)? Maybe you'd call that 'institutional' racism, but the only 'institutional' element here was that the guy who openly sang this controversial song (however, on a private event) happens to be a party leader. He could have been a popular kwaito singer, or a soccer star, or anything. In SA, things are pretty much reversed as compared to the US: blacks are a vast majority while whites (in their larger part, being Boers) are a minority. It's no secret what atrocities the apartheid regime committed against blacks over all those years, but should that be an excuse for some politicians trying to exploit the reversed process now? It's also true that the Truth And Reconciliation process has made huge strolls toward success, but on the other hand it's also true that the grudges from the past would require much more time to heal than a single generation.

My dad was a white guy who joined the blacks' struggle, and I'm proud with that and all, but he has told me that 'It took one generation to defeat white supremacy; if it'd take another one to defeat black totalitarianism, you'd better be ready to go for it.' There's much truth in these words. We often like to think that racism = white bigotry against people of different color. However I'm presenting an example that the opposite is also possible.

Reversed racism does exist, and should be fought against with the same vigor and determination as the one we perceive as 'usual' racism. The examples are many. Don't forget the gaijin phenomenon in Japan. It could be perceived by some as xenophobia without racial connotations, but I'll leave the matter to those who are more familiar with the Japanese culture (I know there are some of them around here). And don't even get me started on Zimbabwe...

Perhaps it's important to distinguish 1) racism as a form of stupid deluded bigotry - from - 2) racism used as an excuse of a majority to oppress a minority (be it ethnic, racial, or why not even a class confrontation transformed into racial one). Based on that distinction, the ways to counter these may differ quite a bit. And that is my next question: is there a difference between these two types of racism, or I'm just imagining things? And what's the preferred way to deal with each of them?

x-posted