LETTER: Creating a successful SA is not a zero-sum game
The DA’s Geordin Hill-Lewis responds to Steven Friedman’s column on liberalism and the party's policy on protecting racial privilege
Steven Friedman pens a thoughtful column, but mischaracterises the choice facing the DA (DA must decide if its brand of liberalism is about protecting racial privilege or fighting it, BusinessLive, May 23). I would argue that this is precisely not the choice the DA faces. The DA has a deep and authentic commitment to fighting for equal rights and the expansion of opportunities for all individuals, no matter their race. This commitment flows from a strong and ancient intellectual and philosophical stream in our country’s history. It is not only the preserve of a few enlightened whites. As Friedman notes, our history is replete with examples of brilliant black liberal intellectuals who opposed early race segregation, and who even populated the founding ranks of the ANC (then the South African Native National Congress, or SANNC). We conceive of the question entirely differently. There need not be any fight between the interests of white and black South Africans. We know there need be n...
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