Dear Black people

Dear Black people

I write this letter to tell you to not be naive and ignorant.
Recently i have notice many intellectuals speaking out on the issue i have been fighting with some of my white friends. Many white people are refusing to admit to have benefited from apartheid. Which is of course just rubbish.

Many of my white friends are starting to see my point when i say they have benefited from apartheid in some way or another. It then hurts me deeply to find that many black people after being educated start to look down on other uneducated black people. It is as if the minute people start going to school and get knowledge they suddenly detach themselves from the community. “It’s them, not us, we not a part of them”

In isiXhosa the is an idiom “istyeba mva sinqol’intaba” (Those who get rich last run for the mountains). This is because when they see themselves being able to do what other white people can do they then adapt to that bubble and quickly forget how the rest of the population lives.

Biko was right when he said physical emancipation will not suffice. We need mental and emotional emancipation. I was in a debate about why do protest always turn violent. And again the same, “people are not following the chain of reporting” came up, but no one ever remembers that they themselves only learnt these fancy names at school and the majority of the black people are simply not that well educated (And we all know who to blame for that, and it’s not Mma Angie). Another comment that struck me in the debate was after suggesting that there should be more offices of government departments in townships one person said “so they can burn them too”. I’ve never felt so insulted in my life. So just because I’m black and live in the townships i don’t deserve services because I’m this barbarian who burns everything i come in contact with.

This is what i meant in one of my earlier posts that black people are always expected to prove themselves. We are always assumed barbaric until proven otherwise. It is even more hurtful to hear it coming from another black person who has been through the struggles that we black people face everyday.

So i write to you black people. It is hard enough to deal with apartheid privilege denialism from white people. To having to deal with black people who are to scared to aknowledge that they are the victims of apartheid is just counter revolutionary (I just had to say that, lol)
For us to move forward as a country we have to aknowledge our past and not forget that many people are disempowered and poor. The fight for the poor should not be forgotten.