Mokete Mokone
BUSINESS: There is no excuse for business not doing their homework about their employees, this could improve and sustain production without hindrances of unfair treatment and practice they should find out more about different race groups: sense of humor, ways of greeting, emotions, perceptions of time and punctuality, particular gestures, attitudes towards authority and the opposite sex.
It should adopt politically correct behavior, i.e. use of terminology that is not offensive when referring to race and racial slurs in the work place should never be permitted to go unattended to, for this contributes to further racial difficulties in the work place. The use of language to describe individuals or groups is a powerful social tool that can be used to value or disparage. Business needs to consider the implications of the terms it uses and agree on alternatives where appropriate.
It should recruit, promote and train employees representing a variety of racial groups and peruse to balance this through: equal employment opportunities, positive action, whether as training or as encouragement is best undertaken within the framework of equal opportunities policy and programme to manage diversity.
Another important area to be addressed should be the ownership of business in South Africa. It should be concerned with opening up opportunities to all employees at all levels of companies. Business should implement ways to assist those employees who qualify to obtain, housing, become literate and generally improve their skills. The acceleration of training at all levels of companies is an urgent requirement.
GOVERNMENT: In building a single nation the authorities of the country must recognize the different cultures, languages and religions in our society. What makes us different, our diversity, is a strength upon which we must build our future. On the other hand, the fear of minorities can also destroy us. The history of South Africa teaches that we cannot sustain our society on privileges of minorities. The government must address legitimate fears. There can be no doubt that racism, or any sense of superiority or discrimination based on race will be combated.
Government should set formal education as a priority. However, the school curriculum must be overhauled to give our youth an authentic view and study of history and culture, and the teaching of the Sciences and Mathematics should be emphasized. We also must be equipped with technical knowledge, as further white schools do, to enable us to participate fully in the modern world. The learning of foreign languages other than English should be fostered either than English should be fostered to acquaint learners with other languages such as French, Spanish just to mention a few.
The government should do a revision of the allocation of resources so that there is a balance development in all areas of the country and available to all citizens of this country. Sparsely populated areas must be given the consideration due to their special circumstances. T he state officials and departments must consider a housing policy that does not encourage the maintenance of suburban neighborhoods only, with supremacy whilst township areas receive poor and bad service delivery. Time has come for new housing plans to include recreational facilities and modern equipment. There should be an agreement on minimum cultural facilities, so that our people have access to the products of various art form, cinemas, galleries, etc.
Racial discrimination and insults should be punishable by law, as without this, further distribution and poising of this racism sickness could be detrimental to the development of our country. Policies and orders should be set to give clarity about racism and the punishment. For the government to achieve national unity in a multi-cultural society is a process that evolves over generations. Ingrained attitudes do not disappear magically or overnight. Nevertheless, good legislation and the goodwill of an active community participation can help to accelerate transformation.
THE MEDIA: Racism at cultural level is perhaps the most profound in its effects, but is often hidden. Being like Europeans is usually regarded as proper and beautiful. This attitude seems to be ingrained in the media. These false perceptions have political and personal consequences in air society ridicule those who do not meet the white standards of beauty and propriety, we tend to devalue that which is African. The tragedy is that racism by brown people continues to be that we deny parts of our history, heritage and ourselves.
The implications of accepting these notions, thus promoting racism further, could be addressed through the media. As a nation wee come from a tragic history of racial difficulties and alienation which has created mistrust and legitimacy
The media has to be acceptable to the black host communities, which require innovative strategies and some elements of collective African language, writings, attire, singing, the rhythm of African drums and dances. Strategies that would address racial problems such as using more of Black produced movies, black music, publications should be produced in a range of other ethnic minority languages to promote and balance all racial involvement in media. To bring about fairness the South African media should concentrate on our black heritage as much as it does on European’s culture. It should embrace all the goodness and wealth, we black possess.
In search to know our essence as South Africans, it is helpful to talk as honesty as we can about our particular heritage and about the historical and social realities we have experienced. The aim is not to glorify a, sometimes difficult heritage or to foster a nation – state mentality, but to realize that, as children of Africa, we have a lot to be proud of.
UNIVERSITIES: Racism operates on different levels, one being, latitudinal level. The assumption again that “white is right” has been part of the customs, traditions, laws and regulations of the South African society, since the first contact between the white explorers and colonists and the indigenous people of the land. All institutions are therefore steeped in racist tradition, that tends to undermine what is African. This is evident in higher learning institutions, by the generally insufficient and to some extreme lack of knowledge about African philosophy, beliefs and languages. Declaring English and Afrikaans as the official language of South African society was an example of institutionalized racism.
It is therefore a requirement for Universities to be responsible for creating a learning environment free from racism in any form or level and must have producers in dealing with any that may or could arise. They should establish and have a policy that defines any form of racial discrimination, that provides clear examples of prejudice and explain the universities’ procedure of addressing and reporting with complaints of racism. Monitoring the whole programme is essential. At the beginning, it allows sensible targets to be set, during the programme it allows progress to be reviewed and changes made it necessary , at the end it evaluates the success of the initiative and determines whether further action is needed . Training to clarify the issue should be provided to give support in preventing racism, to encourage students to discuss the matter and to teach them how to deal with racial discrimination in their respective institutions. Progammes should be developed to train students in language and communication skills to meet special needs of particular racial groups. And management should know how to detect signs of racism, how to intervene and how to process allegations received. Proper follow-up procedures should be established to consider interviewing the complainant, interviewing the accused, interviewing all key witnesses, mediate a meeting between the complainant and accused and making objective decisions. A range of disciplinary measures available should be taken into consideration, depending on the nature of the incident, disciplinary action might include: a warning, close supervision, reprimand, transfer, suspension or termination.
RELIGIOUS GROUPS: These are groups that are responsible for creating morale regeneration in our people and liable for an environment where discrimination is not tolerated, especially by colour.
Religious group need to supervise and control racial unfairness through: creating the right environment by critically observing racial difficulties among members, especially in South Africa where the nation’s people are majorities of different colour. These groups should seek to mobilize the “no racism “whole in South Africa, among members by encouraging single prayer meeting instead of classes and sessions allocated by skin colour. They should also encourage members to know more about the different races in their groups. Some of these groups even have their own schools just for members of that originating colour; this promotes and creates further racial tension even to the society out there. They should promote fairness even in their schools to represent a rainbow nation and take in more different races which are representatives of their constituents. They should urge openness and that trust among members not only among themselves, but even when they meet outside the groups, members could feel safe and secure about their material possessions. If they practice this to their members they will also begin implementing it on society and encouraging it.
Religious folks should be seen and viewed with love and care, they should also practice the ‘no racism’ code among ordinary people so as to slowly, but surely regenerate our people. Africa’s heritage and martyr. Yes the Apartheid system placed us in racial compartments, but it is up to us to break the out of these. Division in our society means that we are ignorant about each other. One of the biggest dangers is that we create stereotypes. We need to take every deliberate step to combat whatever prejudices we may have.
