Ignorance Will Doom Us All

Whilst watching the recent strike regarding accommodation on campus, I was disgusted to overhear a student remark that the strikers should stop being so inconsiderate, shut up, and just be thankful that they have a roof over their heads. Later, another student asked if I had pointed and laughed at these same strikers. Both remarks, I must admit, incensed me slightly because I realised that not only were these students ignorant to the hardships of less fortunate students, but that they were completely unsympathetic and disinterested in trying to understand those hardships.

It seems to me that it is this ignorant and disinterested nature that is making racism and xenophobia such a prevalent part of South African life; aspects that should be, not to sound to idealistic, eradicated given our turbulent history. Of course, I don’t expect racism or xenophobia to disappear, it never will, but I would like to think that in an educated world, people would become more respectful of each other’s differences. Traditionally, universities have been places in which one learns to question society and to consider things that don’t always fall neatly into their little boxes; however it seems that university life in South Africa at the moment is breeding more right-wing thinking and less open understanding.

The recent video of UFS students forcing university domestic workers to drink warmed dog food containing urine, has quite rightly outraged many people around the country. However, what could be seen as more outrageous are the many more people who actually support what these students did. And I’m not including silly groups which support leaders that fall off horses, but well-informed, well-educated, upper-middle class society. It troubles me that firstly, anyone could consciously make another person do what these poor workers were put through and secondly, that others would actually celebrate these students, and instead blame the university for forcing integration.

The notion of forced integration baffles the mind; apparently the intelligence of South African society has digressed to rival the brain capacity of a suicidal cow. For almost 15 years, it has been illegal to exclude or separate people based on their racial differences, and yet it seems to have come as a surprise to students, administration, and a portion of the greater public, that we are no longer an apartheid state.

Perhaps I am horribly deluded, but surely it was the separatist notions of the past that were unnatural and forced? Whilst it is true that most people feel the most comfortable with others who have a similar background, it does not give anyone the right to segregate themselves. Honestly, I doubt that anyone foresaw such backward thinking on the matter after the abolishment of the Nationalist government. And whilst, I’m not suggesting that the past will instantly be forgotten or that we are all going to join hands, prancing in a circle, singing “Oh What a Beautiful Morning”; I would expect, especially from the students of today, to be respectful of one another as human beings.

And yet, from where I see things, less and less consider the similarities of each other, and more and more look to chastise those who are not from the same background or belief system. It worries me to think, that in a world that is fast becoming more global and hybridised, that the future professional leaders of South Africa are stemming from such an ignorant and jaded gene pool.

I don’t propose to have a viable solution to this problem, but I do think that a way forward is for students to get off their complacent backsides and begin treating people like human beings and stop making excuses as to why some people deserve better than others.