LETTER: The IRR paradox

Bryan Rostron recommends taking “race” out of the name of the Institute of Race Relations (Take ‘Race’ Out of IRR, October 18).

He worries that mention of the word has the institute’s CEO, Frans Cronje, “reaching for the smelling salts” because of our opposition to quotas. Cronje swooning: that would be a sight!

The paradox of nonracialists attending to race is easy to solve if one only sees the difference between diagnosis/prognosis on one hand, and medication on the other. It is impossible to diagnose SA’s afflictions or prognose its future course if one is blind to race. But is the cure the same as the disease? No. Majority youth unemployment will persist as long as property rights are threatened by Gucci-slinging, looting racial nationalists.

If racialism is the disease, the cure is not to ignore it or rename it, nor is it just more racialism. This might seem confusing but think about it: the doctor checks for flu, decides you have the flu and gives you flu medicine. That should all be fine — unless the “medicine” is just more flu.

Gabriel Crouse
Institute of Race Relations

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