Panel discussions and dialogues are not for me. There’s always a cleverer person in the audience trying to show me up or poke holes in my argument.
But I’m also jealous of my time with my family - especially if said dialogue cuts into my ritual bedtime story time with my kids.
I keep regular office hours now as a media exec and I feel I’ve earned that right after paying my dues with many late nights covering SONAs and cabinet reshuffles that drop at 11pm.
But this time I succumbed to pressure from my bestie and colleague, Lutfia Vayej. So I found myself on a Monday night as a reluctant panellist at a discussion hosted by the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation (IJR), which was presenting a series of anti-racism dialogues.
The panel was to discuss how the media and advertising sectors reinforce racist behaviours and practices. It was going to be, as the cool kids say, lit.
I presented Independent Media’s award-winning Racism Stops with Me campaign as an example of how the media can facilitate dialogue and broach the issue in a constructive and solutions-driven way.
The idea was to go beyond the headlines to start a conversation.
But what I hadn’t anticipated was an exclusively black and coloured audience - save for the white sound guy and a white NGO representative.
The audience was restless, angry even.
A few asked where the white people were - who were framed as “the perpetrators of racism”.
By the end of the conversation I was angry too.
I understood the anger. But my point of departure was that I wasn’t easily prepared to abandon dialogue for so-called action - whatever shape or form that action may be.
And here’s the rub: if it does come to a point when action is to be taken I will never support a violent course the way the EFF reacted to the racist H&M ads recently.
When dialogue is exhausted, there are other avenues still like stricter legislation against hate speech and hate crimes or even more watertight mandatory laws to enforce transformation in media and advertising.
It is difficult to have honest conversations about racism when the media and advertising industries are still wholly untransformed.
In the ad industry, major corporations like Dove and H&M - who should know better - do untold damage to their brands and alienate the biggest consumer base in South Africa: black Africans.
Yes, all the talk is becoming tiring. Yes, the perpetrators of racism persist. But we dare not give up on dialogue.
One of the finest pieces of contemporary commentary on racism is the book Run Racist Run by Eusebius McKaiser. He expertly dissects racism in all its shapes and forms and this, I submit, is the best way to address the issue.
Read more: BOOK REVIEW: Run Racist Run
In my review of the book I write: “McKaiser tackles many touchy issues and themes, including black-on-coloured and coloured-on-black racism, the black professional’s constant need to prove self-worth, the notion of white superiority and the myth of meritocracy where no one questions how a white chief executive was appointed in the position during apartheid when such positions were reserved for them.
“He also hits for six those often-used phrases like 'Get over it' and 'Stop playing the race card', as well as the use of 1994 as if it was some magical wand that cured all our previous race-relations ills - all of which deny the victims of anti-black racism their right to digest the abuse they suffer. In fact, it becomes a second wave of oppression for the victims.
“To blacks, McKaiser says it is okay to feel anger and to use it as a device to fight and deal with racism.
“And to the white liberal, who he says is an ally in the fight against racism, he says: don’t burden black people with your need to make matters right.”
When do we stop talking about racism? I would go as far as saying that after our Rainbow Nation façade, we haven’t really even begun yet. We need to keep talking - for as long as the majority of South Africans are the targets of racism and oppression.
* Follow more of Abarder’s musings on Twitter - @GasantAbarder.
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