Fighting racism

by Editor · July 4, 2001

Some years ago there lived in the Cape Town suburb of Fish Hoek a woman who was a great fan of the singer Nat King Cole. In her devotion, the lady had compiled a comprehensive collection of the great crooner�s albums. One day, upon learning that Cole was, in fact, black she publicly smashed her precious records.

The days when such crude and absurd racism could be on public display are, for the most part, gone. Open bigotry no longer constitutes socially acceptable behaviour. These days, fundamentalist racism has gone underground, and more often than not is executed insidiously. It can take elusive forms, too. Prejudice is so deeply ingrained in the psyche of many South Africans, that racism is often exercised unconsciously.

Those who cling to the notion of an innate and divinely ordained hierarchy between the races may refer to The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which says: “Every form of social or cultural discrimination�on grounds of sex, race, colour, social conditions or religion, must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God�s design” (paragraph 1935).

At the same time, undue discrimination against white South Africans, and other groups, has in some quarters become political strategy, not infrequently practised by those with a sense for self-aggrandisement. The project of affirmative action, in itself intended as a positive response to apartheid�s legacy of inequality, may serve as one example of this.

Within the Catholic Church, racism tends to be expressed along the lines of the inculturation debate, usually with misinterpretations and caricature of how the process would corrupt the liturgy. Inculturation is official Church policy, as formulated by Pope John Paul in his exhortation Ecclesia in Africa. Alas, what is supposed to unite the faithful is used to divide.

Neville Gabriel, director of the Southern African bishops� Justice and Peace commission, is correct in saying that the effects of apartheid remain with us. It is therefore encouraging that the Church, locally and internationally, has placed an emphasis on the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, to be held in Durban in August.

Discrimination, as the Catechism teaches us, is irreconcilable with our faith. As Christians, we are called to show the way in rejecting all bigotries.