Most of us didn't learn our Mother Tongue academically. We didn't learn the rules. Instead we waded through years of confusion as repetition, imitation, and emotional connection gradually built up a deep web of triggers. It isn't the conscious rules that let us know what to say, or how to understand something. We know. In our bones. We carry on learning, but it takes years and years to unlearn some of the behaviours we got from those years before we can speak. From the years before we learnt to think for ourselves.
In South Africa, there is sometimes an issue with 'Racist Dogs'. Owned by people who genuinely believe they are open-minded and part of the post Apartheid world. Yet no one has told the dog. All the dog sees is that people who aren't white get treated differently.
One of the tools of Apartheid was 'Die Swart Gevaar'. My surname is Black and so that has regularly been given to me as a nickname. It means 'The Black Danger/Threat'. I preferred 'Die Swart Donkey' because I am stubborn, ignorant, and noisy.
'Die Swart Gevaar' was a propaganda tool to keep people afraid of ending Apartheid. To keep the dogs racist. The dogs didn't meet individuals who were friendly (but not servants) from other races. Neither did the people. We were kept separate. Prejudice is just short-hand for the category you put things into that you haven't spent the time learning about. Dogs learnt that Black people they didn't know were dangerous.
Nowadays, I often see 'Die Swart Gevaar' applied to talk of the spread of Islam, or the rise of China, or any other number of categories we have very little understanding of. Places where people all look the same. They all look the same because the dogs inside us haven't learnt to tell the differences.
Islam is an Abrahamic religion. The values are Judeo-Christian. The history of warfare is the Abrahamic history because the people have shared a continental landmass for millennia. Until the Mongol invasions overthrew Baghdad, a 500-year Islamic Golden Age saw the coming together of scholars in 'The House of Wisdom'. Arabic became the language that pulled together the learnings of the entire Old World, stretching from Beijing to Portugal to Southern Africa. We didn't learn about Baghdad at school. We learnt about a whitewashed Rome.
No one told the dogs.
No one told the dogs.
Prejudice is no more something you can unwind through a decision, than learning a language. You can even be trying very hard. You can decide you don't want to be sexist, or homophobic, or racist and try very hard 'learning the grammar'. That isn't how you learn a language. You learn a language through friendships and falling in love. You learn a language through developing a web of emotional connection.
I grew up in what I thought was a more liberal part of Apartheid South Africa. I still believe it was more liberal. Yet the prejudice was very much alive. A number of people have come out as homosexual since we grew up that (understandably) hid that the entire time. Boys and Girls were divided into separate high schools, but even at junior primary and senior primary level, there were separate playgrounds. People in senior positions at work were men. Moms were in charge at home. Hours and hours of deep soaked differences where Boys and Girls were in different categories to be treated differently.
I believe the intent of racist dogs is wholly honourable. The racism they show is actually love for their owners. They are being protective. It is still not acceptable. They will not change through one loving discussion. Gently they need to be shown that the world is not as they were taught it was. Fears need to be unwound. Anger needs to be unwound. Pain needs to be unwound.
South Africa is going through this process. The United Kingdom is going through this process. Colonialism, Imperialism, Racism, Sexism, and various other prejudices are dying. I am a Soutie who lives straddled over both. Trying to see the good intent in people, while being firm that that is not enough. Realising that I need to do the work on myself to unwind the prejudices that I have despite believing I am a pretty decent chap. Giving others that same benefit of doubt.
Good intent is a start. It is not enough. Participating in the process is. Loving each other is.
I grew up in what I thought was a more liberal part of Apartheid South Africa. I still believe it was more liberal. Yet the prejudice was very much alive. A number of people have come out as homosexual since we grew up that (understandably) hid that the entire time. Boys and Girls were divided into separate high schools, but even at junior primary and senior primary level, there were separate playgrounds. People in senior positions at work were men. Moms were in charge at home. Hours and hours of deep soaked differences where Boys and Girls were in different categories to be treated differently.
I believe the intent of racist dogs is wholly honourable. The racism they show is actually love for their owners. They are being protective. It is still not acceptable. They will not change through one loving discussion. Gently they need to be shown that the world is not as they were taught it was. Fears need to be unwound. Anger needs to be unwound. Pain needs to be unwound.
South Africa is going through this process. The United Kingdom is going through this process. Colonialism, Imperialism, Racism, Sexism, and various other prejudices are dying. I am a Soutie who lives straddled over both. Trying to see the good intent in people, while being firm that that is not enough. Realising that I need to do the work on myself to unwind the prejudices that I have despite believing I am a pretty decent chap. Giving others that same benefit of doubt.
Good intent is a start. It is not enough. Participating in the process is. Loving each other is.
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