Monday, September 1, 2014

We are not born racist. Children identify with those who love them.

Volunteer Kathy

Let me explain my simple view of racism. I do not believe that we are born with it. I believe that it is something that is taught to children who grow up thinking they are either superior or inferior because of the colour of their skin.

Children do not see colour but identify with those who love them.

While I was caring for orphaned children, a tourist bus had an accident and a lot of foreigners were killed and injured. The children and I were listening to the news on the radio. One of the teenagers (note that this child had been socialised already to the difference between skin colour as he had been on the streets for a long time) asked me what colour the people on the bus were. I told him that they must have been white because they were mostly from Germany. His words chilled me. “Oh, that’s OK then, Mama D. At least they were not black”. I replied that I was white to which his response was, “No, you not white, Mama D. You the same as me!”

Another incident which I remember concerned a much younger child of approximately five years of age. I met her in the township and we were having a lovely conversation about going to school and what she wanted to become when she was big. Suddenly, she grabbed my arm and said, “What is wrong with your colour?” “Nothing, God made me like this”, I replied. “Well, He made a mistake because you speak Xhosa and you can’t be this colour”.