Are we heading towards a racist society again?

Geoff Sifrin

Taking Issue

The ethos of a liberal South African society where all are treated as individual human beings regardless of race, is retreating, despite laudable proposals by jurists to criminalise racist comments.

Increasingly in public discourse, people are described according to the group they are perceived to belong to and forced into that category, whether they feel part of it or not – whites and blacks can’t escape that identity.

South African Jews are caught in a double bind. On one hand they belong to the white minority in a country where the black majority is increasingly outspoken at white privilege deriving from apartheid, and the ideology is to break down black-white barriers.

On the other hand, South African Jews have their own strong group identity, marry and socialise mostly with other Jews, send some 85 per cent of their children to Jewish schools, and have their own welfare institutions.

This essential aspect of Jewish culture, always present in whichever country they live, is one reason Jews have survived for centuries. They have no desire to relinquish this identity.

Thus far there have been few major anti-Jewish incidents – except from some marginal individuals – and authorities have quickly denounced those that have occurred. The vitriol has rather concentrated on whites and blacks as groups. But history shows repeatedly that once extreme identity politics starts to boil, it usually ends up targeting Jews as part of its madness.

This trend coincides with a resurgence of identity politics worldwide based on ethnicity, race, religion or nationalism. In Europe, the rising nationalist backlash – starting from the right, but increasingly across the political spectrum – against Middle Eastern immigrants and refugees, is palpable.

One example is rightwing German anti-immigrant movement Pegida, which has called for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ouster for permitting such a liberal policy towards Muslim immigrants and threatening German identity.

In the United States, Donald Trump, the rising GOP candidate for president, unashamedly sprouts racist jargon against Muslims and immigrants. He says he is simply saying what lots of Americans are thinking but won’t actually come out and say, because of political correctness.

In the Middle East, radical Islam is on the march; groups like ISIS pursue an agenda to dismantle existing states and create an Islamic caliphate, and to subvert the Western world and turn it into an Islamic realm.

A recent example of identity politics in Israel – far less radical but still ominous – is disqualification of the novel Borderlife by Israeli author Dorit Rabinyan from inclusion in the high school curriculum.

It is about a love affair in New York between a Jewish Israeli woman and Palestinian man. A senior Education Ministry official deemed it inappropriate for Israeli high schoolers, declaring: “Young people of adolescent age tend to romanticise and don’t, in many cases, have the systemic vision that includes considerations involving maintaining the national-ethnic identity of the people and the significance of miscegenation”. Uproar ensued, with some seeing this as defending racial separation.

How to prevent extreme identity politics destroying liberal society? People need a group identity, but also the right to be treated as individuals. Sadly, the balance and wise leadership necessary are both in short supply today.

Read Geoff Sifrin’s regular columns on his blog sifrintakingissue.wordpress.com