Race, realism and critique : the politics of race and Afriforum v Malema in the (in)equality court

Abstract

‘As black people we have suffered racism and ridicule for hundreds of years under a nonsensical, brutal apartheid system. Yet today, barely 17 years post-independence, we are being accused of being racist against those that were racist. Everything we do and say is brought to the courts so that it can be legally banned, just like the Shoot the Boer song, which was interpreted to suit what the rich, white people wanted it to be. This shows that we still have not yet transformed. Apartheid, it seems, has now been legalised. Being black and poor seems to be a curse.’ (Letters to the Editor ‘Whites still rule’ Sunday World 18 September 2011 at 15.) ‘The one who lodges a complaint is heard, but the one who is a victim, and who is perhaps the same one, is reduced to silence.’ (J-F Lyotard The Differend: Phrases in Dispute (1988) 10.)