OPINION - Reports of racism at St Anne’s and Durban Girls’ College are graphic examples of racism by stealth.
Black lives matter, black dignity also matters.
Under the guise of freedom of expression, racists test the constraints of our tolerance by engaging and becoming cheerleaders for forces of hate, from xenophobes to political bigots.
Any attempt to legally desanitise racist comment will lead to facism by stealth.
Hatred and its toxic twin racism are an affront to humanity.
Any form of human degradation is an outrageous violation of our respect for the oneness of humanity.
Racism and intolerance are two of the most baneful and persistent evils.
They are a major barrier to peace.
Their practise perpetuates too outrageous a violation of the dignity of human beings to be countenanced under any pretext.
Racism retards the unfolding of the boundless potential of its victims, corrupts its perpetrators and blights human progress.
Deadly intolerance is a grave malady which, unless arrested, is capable of causing the destruction of our global democratic order. It is a corrosion that has bitten into the fibre of, and attacked the social structure of, our society.
There is surely no nation in this world that holds intolerance in greater horror than us.
No one surveying the history of our planet can overlook the wreckage of commitment, twisted and turned into a thousand shapes under the stress of prejudice and racism by stealth.
It takes courage to face this malicious enemy.
The present situation is a product of the past. The planet’s past is a painful history of racism, resulting in a sick and divided society.
It was philosopher George Santayana who said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
FAROUK ARAIE Johannesburg
Daily News