The Face of White Supremacy

Do you think Andile Mngxitama's got a point in his column?

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    Votes: 4 5.4%

  • No

    Votes: 67 90.5%

  • Unsure

    Votes: 3 4.1%
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FlatspinZA

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I couldn't find a reference to this anywhere on this forum, maybe I'm blind.

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-11-08-the-face-of-white-supremacy

Gareth Cliff is the poster boy of post-1994 racism and the ANC is happy to burnish his image.

Responses to Cliff's "Letter to the government" on his website have exposed that most South Africans cannot decode white supremacists' texts and actions.

Cliff, the Radio 5 DJ, has written an anti-black manifesto which ironically is celebrated as a statement for clean government.

He has achieved what the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging and other right-wing racists groups have failed achieve -- normalising white supremacy.

He dresses it up as humanist concerns for good governance and service delivery. Cliff is the new paternalistic white liberal Biko so despised.

Unconscious racist
What makes Cliff so effective is that he is not a conscious racist. A basic mistake is the misreading of white supremacy as the preserve of neo-Nazi lunatic elements and not part of the whole reality that naturalises white privilege at the expense of blacks.

This is written into our history of slavery, colonialism and apartheid. White supremacy is taken as a given and the unearned privileges it bestows on whites are never seen or questioned.

Cliff's genius as an effective agent of racism is in his usage of "the truth".

When Manto Tshabalala-Msimang passed on, Cliff used the "truth" of the ANC's murderous HIV/Aids denialism to launch a brutal, racist attack on her. He wrote: "Manto is dead. Good. A selfish and wicked bungler of the lowest order. Rotten attitude and rancid livers -- all three of them …"

Society condemns the overt racist actions of the Reitz Four but Cliff, the arrogant white boy who here reinscribed the most vile, anti-black violence, gets away with it under the guise of freedom of expression.

Insults
Even the white men in the Treatment Action Campaign were given to insulting Tshabalala-*Msimang with no compunction because, as they said, she implemented a policy of murder.

This was true but it is also true that whites have taken everything from blacks, even the right to insult their own.

An anti-racist decoding of Cliff's letter reveals its white supremacist motif. He uses the universal "we" to erase the differential realities of blacks and whites and thereby presents his white perspective as representing all.

True, some blacks are caught up in the hegemonic white perspective and resist warnings about the seductive vision of "sameness" between the oppressed and the privileged.

There is a truism that must be emphasised -- the ANC has not failed white people, it has failed blacks. Whites want guarantees that their ill-gotten privileges will be protected. Blacks want real transformation.

Problems with the ruling party
This demand is inimical to white privileges, because a truly antiracist reality necessarily would lead to "whites losing stuff". So the gripes blacks and whites have with the ANC aren't for the same reasons. Cliff speaks for whites.

The blacks are either nodding vigorously in confused agreement or are mumbling.

Cliff is driven by a nervousness that South Africa is fast joining the dark continent Joseph Conrad warned about. Julius Malema, the ANC Youth League leader, is not making things any easier.

Cliff speaks for an anxious constituency when he says: "Africa is tired of tin-pot dictators, one-party states and banana republics." This is a neat reproduction of the swart gevaar under the guise of concern.

From this he is able to say that the ANC record is worse than that of the apartheid regime. This must be an ultimate insult to thinking blacks. It is also pretty ignorant, but that is the point of white privilege.

Accountability
When Cliff complains about corruption and how it affects the rich (read whites), he never pauses to ask how the rich got rich in the first place. If he asked this he would have to confront a bitter reality that whites accumulated wealth and comfort not through hard work but violence, plunder and theft.

The absence of historical account to explain the present is a good way to avoid accounting for historical injustice.

The ANC must be among the most mentally enslaved blacks ever to achieve political power.

First, they have ensured the apartheid structure remains. Ending this would have been the best mechanism to end racism and white arrogance.

Then when Cliff throws racist insults at them and the president, they reward him with a presidential lunch where allergies caused by some trees are discussed.

Black writers and journalists have been punished for saying less harmful stuff. The black poor are met with rubber bullets and jail every time they raise their issues -- not even a presidential Oros-drinking session is ever contemplated.

The presidential hotline is a joke. Now, Cliff says he wants his demands met. One white man with his insults got them to jump. It's nice to be white.
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I don't want to get into a black vs white thing here - we are all in the same boat. This writer just irritates me - I could care less what Gareth Cliff has to say.

I could say reams about the things this writer has to say. The only thing I really want to mention is his ridiculous comment about how the "black poor are met with rubber bullets and jail every time they raise their issues".

Exactly who is shooting these people with rubber bullets? Do you see white people burning down buildings, tipping over cars, and basically destroying everything in their path when they have an issue? If it were white people that were doing those things they'd be met with exactly the same treatment - rubber bullets and jail.

The unfortunate part about all this is that these "poor" people are being incited to violence by people like Malema, instead of being shown the correct way of addressing an issue i.e. with their vote. It is the ANC letting these people down, and then shooting them with rubber bullets and throwing them in jail, not white people with ill-gotten wealth and privilege - you dumb ass!
 
Not sure why there is such an outcry. Cliff's opinions and views are similar too how most South Africans perceive the way that government is running this country. Had his letter been an anonymous letter in a Sunday paper, i doubt the media reaction would be the same. Because he is a well known public figure he is being taken to task.
 
As written by ANDILE MNGXITAMA and other interesting people.

Everyone, stop waffling and be clear, this is our country, not a hate each other club.
 
The writer of that article is quite clearly mentally retarded.
 
SinghDude said:
Not sure why there is such an outcry. Cliff's opinions and views are similar too how most South Africans perceive the way that government is running this country. Had his letter been an anonymous letter in a Sunday paper, i doubt the media reaction would be the same. Because he is a well known public figure he is being taken to task.
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If it was anonymous - there would still have been replies calling the author a white racist.
 
Bascially, he's saying that Gareth Cliff has no business criticising the ANC or the government, for the following reasons:

1. He has no idea what it's like to be black
2. At least what we have now is better than what we had then.

Imagine someone spent their entire life living at the bottom of a sewer. And the a saviour came along and put them on the _top_ of the sewer and told them they were special. A person like that is not going to understand how anyone can criticise their saviour.

Because Gareth is white, and never had to live in a 'sewer', he doesn't understand how his criticism of the 'saviours' can be found so distasteful. Gareth is basically being accused of blasphemy.
 
The one difference between Malema and this writer is that the writer said "effective agent" whereas Malema would say "bloody agent". :rolleyes:
 
davemc said:
As written by ANDILE MNGXITAMA and other interesting people.

Everyone, stop waffling and be clear, this is our country, not a hate each other club.
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That's exactly my point - Mr Mngxitama seems to think white people want this country to fail. We don't, because we like living here (even if I am leaving it doesn't mean I don't like living here) - we just want to see our government doing more for ALL of our people so we don't have to put up with regular strike action & watching people getting rubber-bulleted on the news because they're not happy with the government's service delivery.
 
xrapidx said:
If it was anonymous - there would still have been replies calling the author a white racist.
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Not really, alot black/indian/coloured/green people also feel that the govt has no clue about service delivery and other issues.
 
Oh look, it's another bigoted, ignorant retard calling someone a racist because they don't agree with him and happens to be white and famous. Seriously, its 2010, this race card bullschit was already old 10 years ago.
 
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R13... said:
He's in good company right in this thread...
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You're all confusing laziness with mental retardation.

It's a lot easier to say 'Andile's so retarded!' than to actually take a moment to understand where he's coming from.

It's also a lot easier to say 'These whites don't understand how blacks do things', than to understand *why* that might be so. Or even to investigate as whether it is so.

Similarly, it's a lot easier for me to make fun of people on this forum for being idiots than it is to actually help people to stop being idiots. I wouldn't call that a sign of mental retardation, though. Would you?
 
This writer is deluded and thick as pig ****!
 
If we fail to make our government accountable, we are no worse than Zim. Cliff raised valid points in his letter and that's how majority of SA feel.
 
grayston said:
Similarly, it's a lot easier for me to make fun of people on this forum for being idiots than it is to actually help people to stop being idiots. I wouldn't call that a sign of mental retardation, though. Would you?
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Minds are set on the internet (especially here in CA). The conversion rate must be very close to zero... people don't come here to understand each other or issues, they're here to offer their prejudiced opinions no matter the facts or understanding. Good luck changing anyone.
 
FlatspinZA said:
That's exactly my point - Mr Mngxitama seems to think white people want this country to fail. We don't, because we like living here (even if I am leaving it doesn't mean I don't like living here)
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Thats a very good point - If I wanted this country to fail - I wouldn't still be in it :wtf:
 
How does upsetting the few people who pay the most tax make any sense? What does that writer think will happen if the government tried to evenly distribute all the personal wealth in the country?
 
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