LETTER: DA in two minds on race issue
Party sets a dangerous precedent with flirtations over race nationalism
On the question of race being a proxy for disadvantage, the DA sounds ever more like the United Party of old with its mantra of “separate development with justice”. The DA has changed its tune from saying that “race is a proxy for disadvantage” to a new line that “race is not the only proxy for disadvantage”. This is a device that allows the party to have it both ways. It can flirt with the race nationalism of the ANC when convenient while telling its more liberal constituents not to worry as race is not very important at all. In other words, it takes the coward’s way out on the most intractable point of policy and principle faced by our country. The ANC, to its credit, is bold enough to stand up and say what it believes, that race must be the basis of policy. There is no faffing about. At the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), we are bold enough to say that it should not be and that policy should be based on established socioeconomic disadvantage. A colleague reports that, at a rec...
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