The newly formed GOOD party is the first to explicitly say they are campaigning the 2019 elections on being a party that will tackle racism in South Africa. Some people have questioned the vagueness of this, and asked whether a “not in my name” campaign is really enough.
A true leader working on racism will have a voice on this issue that encompasses a public value proposition (why we need to change) and a mobilising theory of change (how we will collectively get there).
As my handful of regular readers will know, I believe that social change is a daily practice, and it requires inputs from all of society.
Below I sketch out what “tackling racism” as a concerted policy approach could look like.
Why we need to change
An inspiring leader would need to be able to simplify the complex psychological, physical, economic and social impacts of racism into easily accessible and hard-to-disagree-with campaigns.
Unfortunately, many anti-racism campaigns and organisations working in this space rely on a language of oppression, prejudice, privilege that, while important in social theory, is often inaccessible and/or threatening to ordinary people. Moral arguments built on these framings are unfortunately not winning the fight against the alt-right globally, where we are seeing the comparative strength of over-simplified, easily sharable on whatsapp/twitter/facebook slogans and misinformation. More locally, anger and hate are politically popular and, to me, it remains unclear if the tactic of vigilance against individual acts of racism serves to support structural change, or increase divides.
A good campaign would unbundle this language, and draw attention to the often underlying issues that contribute to or result from each.
I don’t know what this looks like, but I believe there are lessons to be learnt here from civil society’s response to xenophobic attacks, where the messaging was not about why xenophobia was ethically wrong in and of itself (it is), but about why xenophobia was actually misdirected anger on issues such as unemployment and crime.
What are people really afraid of losing when they lash out racially, or exclude someone who is different?
Focus on those things.
Create a theory of change on multiple levels
Racism exists on different levels, and, as such, a theory of change that acknowledges these levels would be needed. For example:
- At an individual level we would need to address prejudice and confirmation bias; as well as support victims of racism. Here, the role of education, faith-based organisations, programmes that support personal introspection, making accessible materials on identity politics, theory & history of oppression, access to counselling and restorative justice mediators, and in some cases access to the courts would be needed.
- Sector/company/organisation level issues: there are many specialists who work with organisations to address transformation, create sensitivity around prejudices, and improve the performance of diverse teams. Here formal diversity programmes, BEE policies, school recruitment policies etc become important tools, with buy-in from sector and industry leaders.
- Structural/societal level: a political party cannot campaign on racism if it does not have corresponding economic, land and spatial policies that address structural exclusion from education, work and social goods.
At all levels, intersections of race, class, gender and sexuality are also relevant.
Mobilise other role players
Racism is a whole of society issue. From the above it already becomes clear that many role players would be needed in an impactful transition away from racism. Some of these would include:
- Department of Education: for its diversity of staff, learners and including some theories and histories of oppression and prejudice in the curriculum. This can start at a young age. There are tools available for speaking to the little ones about racism. This also needs to get to the details — for example, how is isiXhosa taught in schools and at University? If its still (as in my time), only how to talk to a domestic worker, petrol attendant and shop-keeper this is a problem — why not talk to a Dr, boss or lover? I’ve previously written more on how to address racism in school.
- Industry bodies: a social compact is needed around re-affirming commitment to diversity training,inclusion of race as an issue in responsible tourism pacts, celebrating, sharing and strengthening good practice. Large employers and large procurers should be incentivised to develop turn-key business models as part of their value chains, and (on the state side) within the pipelines of big industrial node/infrastructure/urban regeneration projects. “Large employers” would of course include government — how would a governing party “start at home” with its internal recruitment, training and management practices?
- Influencers: a cross-section of societal icons should be rallied to speak out against blatantly racist attacks and trends, and celebrate good news stories of authentic integration.
- Young and old leaders: dialogues, story telling and online and offline conversational and creative spaces. Childrens Radio Foundation and similar initiatives can be used to demonstrate the value of dialogue as exploration rather than always and only debate.
- Community organisers and public space activators: Open Streets is one example of how community based movements can use public spaces to connect people of difference, showcase cultural diversity, model a safe and integrated society.
- Built environment professional bodies: legislation on the obligations of the state needs to be made clearer with its intent for spatial justice and racial integration of our cities. At the same time, the power-holders within this sector need to transform, and adopt commitments that push the boundaries on spatial transformation.
- Immigrant representatives: racism extends to xenophobia. Leaders blaming migrants for poor service delivery should be condemned for their over-simplified, one-sided and dangerous blame diversions. Beyond that, we complicit in xenophobia due to the conditions in which we make immigrants queue at home affairs, the language used to talk about immigrants, and the policies on employment of foreigners (who might bring valuable skills to our economy). A good anti-racism policy would address these aspects, too.
- Media: the media has a role to play in myth-busting. When claims of “no opportunities for whites”, “white genocide” etc go viral; the media has a role to play to counter these narratives with statistics. Similarly, the media has a role to play in adjusting how it portrays white vs black criminals, and how it portrays white vs black excellence (e.g. profiling young black entrepreneurs and scientists; profile progressive white farmers etc)
These are just some ideas. Incomplete and no-doubt imperfect. Transitioning away from a racist society will, ultimately, require a lot of learning — let’s try these things, and learn from the responses as we go.
Finally, I wrote much of the above in 2015, long before the GOOD party was formed. It lived as an unfinished internal memo at work. At the bottom, lay this quote:
“Changing de facto structural racism like tackling the dominance of white business ownership and white land ownership, together with changing the city’s integration, is where ending racism really begins.”
It is from an article titled “Why Helen Zille’s racism rhetoric is wrong”. I guess politicians have been talking about racism for a while.
Are we going to see our first explicit anti-racism political campaign, supported with policy interventions?
