I refer to Prof Steven Friedman’s column, in which he urged the country to engage the issue of racism in our society (“SA needs to take the issues raised by Black Lives Matter more seriously (https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/columnists/2020-07-21-steven-friedman-sa-needs-to-take-the-issues-raised-by-black-lives-matter-more-seriously/)”, July 21). I appreciate the conversation this article is encouraging given how little the Black Lives Matter protests affected public discourse in SA relative to other countries.
However, I differ with Friedman when he says SA needs to recognise how insidious racism is in the country. Black people in this country are well familiar with how widespread white supremacy and privilege are in this country, and we speak plenty about how race shapes our society. It is not the country that needs to start talking about race, but white people in SA...
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