White man’s ingrained superiority

NIA MAGOULIANITI-MCGREGOR

Part of ORT2Talk’s lecture series, Weiner – shortlisted for the position of Public Protector in 2016, a founding member of Lawyers for Human Rights and a High Court judge – is eminently qualified to take us to the brink of discomfort. 

“Preoccupation with individual racists is a gross misunderstanding of the problem.” This is merely the opening salvo of her main hypothesis: Structural racism and white privilege is the insidious problem behind the problem.

Weiner defines the idea further: “Structural and systemic racism is a system in which public policies, institutional practices and other norms work in various ways reinforcing and perpetuating racial group inequality.”

It allows, she says, privileges and advantages associated with whiteness to endure with regards to, for example, good education and decent jobs. It’s covert, not overt, its disguised and subtle. “It shapes the world in which we live.”

She quotes from a paper by US women’s studies scholar Peggy McIntosh: “As a white person, I realised I’d been taught about racism as something which puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage.”

And: “White privilege is an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in every day.”

Moving on to constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos, she says he wrote how, on a recent trip to Thailand, he was struck by the fact that every model displayed on a billboard had a lighter complexion than most people there.

“Assumptions about white superiority are so deeply embedded in modern society that they can easily appear to be normal and natural when, in fact, they’re nothing more than a manifestation of structural racism.

“If you happen to be white, it may be more difficult to become aware of how your view of the world and of yourself is held up as superior to other ways of being in the world. We might find it difficult to accept that this helps to prepare us for success in the world.”

But how to address this white privilege? Weiner says it can’t be by merely creating opportunities for black people to assimilate. Instead we have to transform society and challenge our basic assumptions about how society operates and how opportunities are distributed.

“In short, you attack and dismantle white privilege which is the flipside of the coin of structural racism. Some of us call this transformation.”

This is scary and threatening. “We stand to lose not only our unearned advantage but also our sense of wellbeing, our sense of being inherently virtuous and superior, of never being judged collectively for the evils done by other white people.”

Still, she says, it’s in our interests to do this. It makes for a better, more capable society by harnessing the talents of all its members.

Weiner challenges us to lose the guilt. “You didn’t create apartheid, but just be aware of how privileged you are.”

One way to do this, perhaps, is how we raise our children. She cites a New York Times article by educator Jennifer Harvey called: Are we raising racists?

We must speak honestly to kids about racism, she says “Parents who rely on messages like ‘We’re all equal’ or ‘We’re all the same underneath our skin’ in the hope of teaching our children the values of inclusion and equality, is paying lip service to the issue.

“When they see racial inequality, they won’t blame racism. Instead, they’ll blame people of colour for somehow falling short.”

“Change one person at a time and you’ll change the world,” Weiner advised during question time.

702 presenter Redi Tlhabi, was in the audience. She says the assumption is that the people committing corruption are in the majority. “They’re not. Who loses the most? Poor black people. Not just whites are victims. And we all pay taxes. The poor also pay taxes. Corruption is done to all.”