LEWE NA APARTHEID: LIDMATE SE NARRATIEWE VANUIT 'N ...

Hoofstuk 4: Die verhaal oor apartheid – teenswoordige tyd
p195
Hierdie standpunt van Oosterwyk is egter nie ongekwalifiseerd houdbaar nie. Alhoewel
dit waar is dat baie rassistiese optredes vanuit ʼn posisie van mag gebeur, is dit nie
altyd die geval nie. Selfs ʼn ondergeskikte kan rassisties optree teenoor sy meerdere.
Sonder om spesifieke redes vir sy standpunt te gee, huldig Fisher (2007:86) later ook
die standpunt dat rassisme nie alleen net met mag te make het nie:
Under apartheid, we often argued that it was impossible for black
people to be racist, because they were powerless to act on their
racism, unlike whites who had political and economic power. Recently,
however, I have come to believe that it is in fact possible for black
people to be racist, and that you can be racist even if you do not have
the power to act on your beliefs.
Die rede vir Fisher se verandering van standpunt het waarskynlik te make met die
ander aspek van rassisme. Rassevooroordeel en rassisme het ook alles te make met
menswaardigheid, en wel soos dit neerslag vind in veronderstelde rassemeerderwaardigheid
en –minderwaardigheid.
Rassisme het alles te make met hoe ʼn mens jouself sien ten opsigte van ander rondom
jou. Die DA se skadu-minister van Basiese Onderwys en voormalige akademikus
Wilmot James beskryf rassisme as “a presumption of inferiority or superiority or
consequential difference based merely on appearance, principally skin colour”
(aangehaal in Fisher 2007:94). Elders in dieselfde boek verklaar hy:
There is a sense of cultural superiority in some people that are just
offensive. This is something that you find a lot among English-speaking
whites who take for granted a sense of superiority as a result of a
civilised European heritage. I don’t know what to do about it.
Multiculturalism is fine but when it comes to a sense of superiority
because of ethnic chauvinism, then it becomes a problem (Fisher
2007:65).
Hierdie houding was reeds sigbaar in die tyd van die Engelse kolonialisme. Sparks
(1990:45) haal vir Cecil John Rhodes aan wat sou sê:
I contend that we are the finest race in the world, and that the more of
the world we inhabit, the better it is for the human race. Just fancy,
those parts that are at present inhabited by the most despicable spec-