Despite what some ‘progressives’ think, the broad liberal message of free markets, non-racialism, and rule of law has resonance far beyond any tea-sipping group of blue-rinse suburbanites.
I came across an interesting conspiracy theory on Twitter recently. According to this anonymous account (which I would rather not name and avoid giving it any more clicks), there’s a large number of ‘blackface’ accounts on this popular social media platform.
These accounts have a photo of a black person as the profile picture and a black person’s name for a handle. They will often push policies that are broadly in line with what we at the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) propose, typically including free markets, less government interference in people’s lives, and an end to race-based policy. According to this genius (or ‘galaxy brain’), these accounts are actually run by us here at the Institute – presumably from the massive troll farm we preside over in the IRR basement.
I recall another similarly fanciful theory involving a comedian who uses a puppet as an alter-ego. This was a few years ago, but I was so shocked by the incident it has stayed with me. The comedian was involved in an argument, also on Twitter, with (my now colleague) Sihle Ngobese – Big Daddy Liberty. At one point, the comedian, an alumnus of Bishops in Cape Town, told Ngobese that his brain was ‘colonised’. Of course, in the comedian’s mind, Sihle could only have arrived at the conclusions he had because his brain had been taken over by whites, not because he was a man with agency and a fully functioning mind.
More recently, Unathi Kwaza, an entrepreneur from Cape Town – who was also a parliamentary candidate for the Purple Cows – was told by a prominent white journalist on Twitter that her mother would be ashamed of her because she did not believe the old South African flag should be banned. The journalist seemingly believes black people should be ashamed if they don’t think what he thinks, or how he has decided all black people should think.
What do these three incidents tell us? First, Twitter is a cesspool, not unlike the frontier starport town of Mos Eisley in Star Wars – ‘a wretched hive of scum and villainy’. Second, it tells us that I probably spend too much time browsing it. But, most importantly, what these three incidents (of many) show is how people (often white folks, it must be said), who presumably believe themselves to be non-racist or progressive, actually have a prejudiced view of black people.
The belief that black people who have opinions that are not socialist or collectivist in nature are brainwashed or are somehow ‘bought’, or do not really believe what they profess, is common. It is commonplace for people like Sihle or other prominent young black South Africans who could be described as liberal – such as Gwen Ngwenya or Mpiyakhe Dhlamini – to be accused of being bought or of being ‘sellouts,’ or being called even more despicable names (‘askari’ comes to mind).
People who do not believe that black people can be liberals, or libertarians, or conservatives, or any one of the innumerable ideological flavours on the political menu that are generally to the right of socialism or communism, have a lower view of black people than they do of white people.
These people do not call white liberals ‘sell outs’, or claim they are bought. They accept that white liberals, like themselves, arrived at their point of view or came to support a certain ideology through a complex process. This might include the influence of parents and peers, the books they read, the university they attended or the course they studied, or simply the process of thinking deeply about their life philosophy. But, these people seem to argue, black liberals can only have come to the conclusions they profess because whites brainwashed them, or because they have been paid to say certain things.
Make no mistake, this kind of racism is from the same vile school that will tell you the average black person who votes for the African National Congress or Economic Freedom Fighters is stupid, and only votes for those parties because they do not know any better. It is also from the same place that, during apartheid, white South Africans who dared to think black people deserved equal rights were called ‘k*****-boetie’.
But I do think the tide is turning. In the course of my work and the work that the IRR does, we are lucky enough to come across enthusiastic young people who support liberalism and liberal ideas. In the past week, I met three very intelligent young people whom one would consider solidly liberal. These things should not matter, but in South Africa they do, so it is of import to mention that all three of these young people are black. Two of them are interning with us at the Institute, while the other fellow was a young man studying at Rhodes University, who was in Johannesburg and wanted to come and say hello and how much he appreciated the work we did.
Now, of course, saying that a person is liberal does not mean saying he or she is more intelligent than someone who is not, or has greater insights into the world than those who do not consider themselves liberal. But it is clear that the broad liberal message of free markets, non-racialism, and rule of law has resonance far beyond any tea-sipping group of blue-rinse suburbanites.
Parties such as the Democratic Alliance would do well to remember that. And others (especially white people) who consider themselves ‘progressive’ should remember that black people have as much agency as anyone else. Black liberals are not liberal because they are bought or because they are brainwashed. They are liberal because they have carefully considered the alternatives and come to the conclusion that liberalism works and can play a role in solving South Africa’s problems.
Marius Roodt is deputy editor of the Daily Friend and a writer and campaigns adviser at the IRR
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