Humanity’s real-life Hell-oween: Inherent racism reveals itself under influence
|Published
OUT ON BAIL: Corrie Pretorius beat a laaitie
Someone once told me that the truth comes out only when you’re angry or inebriated.
And the more I think about it, the more it rings true.
On any normal day, we are able to censor ourselves and show our chosen facades to the world, because that’s what decent society demands of us.
But it’s not so easy when we’re angry, and alcohol has a habit of loosening the tongue substantially.
Which brings me to last weekend’s third pee scandal to hit Stellenbosch University this year.
It came just days after our prosecuting authorities decided to charge Theuns du Toit, the young man behind the first incident.
In May, Du Toit was videoed urinating on the belongings of first year student Babalo Ndwayana, after a night out drinking.
The argument put forward by his family was that he wasn’t racist, just drunk out of his senses at the time.
I desperately want to believe that, but then I am reminded of my opening sentence, and the fact that a photograph later emerged of his brother proudly posing with the old South African flag.
In the latest incident, two black students were the victims of an identical incident, this time in the neighbouring Eendrag men’s residence, also late at night.
In a statement, the university said that the student in question was “severely intoxicated”.
While the culprit left the campus of his own accord, I’m going to predict that at some point, he will also want to make it known that his actions were not borne out of racism.
Somewhere in the middle of the two incidents, another student was suspended after he peed his pants while sitting on a fellow student’s chair, again late at night, and again the culprit was blind drunk.
Since he wasn’t standing upright with his willy out spraying his roommate’s belongings, he might have had a better time convincing us that racism was not a motive.
Be that as it may, in all the cases, the victims were people of colour – you don’t need a degree to spot the pattern.
Stellenbosch University may be the scene of the crimes on the regular, but it is merely a reflection of ongoing and recurring societal issues.
Last month, Corrie Pretorius was finally granted bail, after he viciously attacked a 16-year-old boy in a parking lot in Groblersdal, Pretoria, apparently over the use of a salt shaker.
In a video, the angry Pretorius, gun in hand, can be seen repeatedly kicking the boy in the ribs, before stomping on his chest.
Last week in nearby Meyerton, Vereeniging, a video emerged of a burly white man repeatedly hurling the k-word at a black waiter.
The victim, who has a knife in his hand, demands that the man stop insulting him, but the man responds by flipping him and the angry bystanders off. He unashamedly uses the k-word several more times, before leaving.
The previous stories were about alcohol, but his behaviour is an example of the truth being triggered by anger, however unreasonable.
It seems the more progress we make as a society, the more harsh the pushback from those wanting to maintain the status quo of division.
While white society generally seems happy to share wealth, status and even power in some cases, there’s an element that refuses to acknowledge social equality between the races.
Worldwide racial extremism, prejudice and hate seems to be digging in their heels, fighting tooth and nail for its continued existence. And yet the solution is a relatively simple one.
More intelligent white people – whom I firmly believe outnumber the ignorant ones – need to stand up and be counted.
They cannot remain quiet, politely declining to get involved, wanting to simply live their lives in peace, while others suffer the indignity of unchallenged bigotry.
They must make their voices heard at ballot boxes.
Because as long as they don’t, there will always be a minority of people who will want to mark a territory that they believe is theirs and theirs alone.