It is not the roots of black hair – its about racism

Black hair hierarchy is a metaphor for life. It’s not just about hair – it’s about racism.

Image -  Creative Commons License

I am the manager of an emergency placement centre, or orphanage, in Mitchells Plain – a largely coloured location situated about 30 km from the Cape Town’s CBD.

Every child in our care has a story of unimaginable pain and suffering. We do what we can to provide the necessary interventions and solutions that can help them to slowly change the way their story ends.
We receive calls almost daily where we are told horror stories and asked to provide a place for a child that has been abandoned, abused or neglected. I don’t think I will ever get used to these phone calls, no matter how many I take. When the social worker tells me “It’s a girl” my heart always drops a little further: three little words that are a clear indicator of the sexual, emotional, psychological and racial stereotyping that lies ahead.

The greatest challenge I have is convincing the young black and coloured girls who are brought to my orphanage that they are beautiful, that they deserve to be part of a story that has positivity and potential.

Shit must be pretty messed up if you have to work hard to persuade a little girl that she is beautiful.
The information a little girl has comes from the people around her, the structures she lives in, the media, the words and ideas that she is exposed to. If she is not comfortable in her skin, her body, her hair – it is our fault. We have failed her.

We created and accepted a world where our structures, words and actions placed her, the young black girl, right at the bottom of the system. How can she recognise her power and worth when everything around her reminds her that she is right at the bottom? We have accepted a system that privileges the interests, ideals and standards of everyone else over the integrity, dignity and autonomy of these girls.
I see her seek comfort in reading fairytales of a white princess with long flowing gold hair cascading down her back. This princess with the happily-ever-after is so far removed from her reality.

She calls the Barbie Doll she plays with “Beautiful Tina”. This doll is skinny and white with flawless skin, not dark and bruised like she is today. It is this definition of beauty that makes it so hard to convince the little black girl in my care that she is in fact beautiful. The devaluing of African physical features, including hair, skin and features, is the reason little Thandeka thinks she is not beautiful. She exists in a culture where Blackness exists as the antithesis of beauty.

It is racism disguised as fairytales, movies, jokes, children’s animations, toys, and school rules. I am not a writer or a journalist. I don’t have the words to describe how this affects the way many of these little girls see themselves. The only way I can do this is to show you.

Watch this video (turn up your volume because it is very soft). Please watch on South Africa Today - here is the link = VIDEO

This is Nati, a little girl aged 8. This is not the first time she has been visibly upset because of her hair not being long enough, soft enough or smooth enough. On this particular day she was teased at school and called a “pitte kop”. She came home and insisted on having her hair chemically treated/relaxed so that it would be softer, smoother and flatter.

We began explaining to her how the chemicals would damage her hair, and she became inconsolable. All she wanted was hair “like on the TV”. She told us that this was more “girly” that she didn’t want to look like a boy. It devastated me. Here, Eurocentric beauty norms play such a role in how my girls determine beauty and femininity. As long as we allow these ideas to remain so entrenched in our systems they become normal.

This eight-year-old girl will continue to believe that her natural hair is not normal, that it needs to be changed to fit the standard of beauty set by some white person on TV. Why should she conform to standards designed to accommodate girls who do not share her hair type and bone structure that she can never attain?

I have heard girls say:

“But you can’t be a princess, you are not white.”
“But all businesswomen are white.”
“Look at your hair, you need to relax it.”
“When I am bigger I want straight hair.”

This is what happens when young girls draw upon the images in the media to determine their definition of beauty. Even though there are a few exceptions, our media is white, our school codes of conduct are white, our storybooks are white, our priorities are white, our structures are white. Nearly everything is white and male.

The root of the problem, is not the roots of a young girl’s hair. The root of the problem is institutionalised racism. The root of the problem is where gender and race intersect.

The saddest part is that some of us do not even realise this.

Please read the entire article published on South Africa Today News -  
Note - this article was written for GroudUp by Anonymous 

Three schools burnt in Eastern Cape during protests

Eastern Cape schools burn as students protest against teacher shortage. Some schools short of teachers since February, says Equal Education.

Students at Mhlanganisweni Technical and Commercial High School in Libode cleaning up after protests. Photo: supplied/GroundUp

 

Three schools were burnt in Ngqeleni and Libode this week during protests against a shortage of teachers, bringing the number of schools burnt in the Eastern Cape to four in just in one month. 

On Wednesday night Chief Henry Bokleni High School in Libode, 34 km from Mthatha, was set alight. Students were protesting against corporal punishment, and against demands for R250 from parents to pay teachers employed by the School Governing Body (SGB) to solve a teacher shortage. They also want the school to participate in more sports events in the district.

SGB chairperson Mandla Jali said he had been woken up on Wednesday night and told the school was burning.

“We managed to stop the fire and we are going to stay here for a while guarding the school,” he said. Grade 12 students were able to start their matric prelims with community members guarding them, Jali said.

He said a meeting had been held at the school between parents, teachers and students in an attempt to find solutions.

The burning of Chief Henry Bokleni High School comes after six classrooms, the principal’s office, an administration block, library and laboratory at Nogemane Senior Secondary School in Ngqeleni were set alight by students who were demanding a matric farewell party.
SGB member Jongimvula Hohlo said the school was planning to hold the event after the prelim exams.

A house rented by Sandi Senior Secondary School in Ntsudwana Village in Ngqeleni as well as a school hall were vandalised and set alight on Monday 29 August. Students were demanding more teachers. Five teachers, including the deputy principal, were fired in February by the SGB which held them responsible for the drop in the matric pass rate from 100% to 35% in the past few years.

Matric prelims were put on hold in both schools while parents, representatives of the Eastern Cape Department of Education, community leaders and representatives of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) discussed the problem of teacher shortages in the Libode District.

Equal Education (EE) and Sadtu have said the department should take responsibility for the crisis.
EE called on the department to investigate the shortage of teachers.

Deputy general secretary Ntuthuzo Ndzomo said EE did not condone the burning of schools. But the shortage of teachers was a crisis in the Eastern Cape, he said.

“We are very disappointed in the department for not taking this issue of a shortage of teachers very seriously. In some of these schools you find that pupils have been out of teachers since February,” he said. The department should have intervened long ago, said Ndzomo.
Other schools also faced a lack of teachers. Some of the teachers left because the department took too long to pay them, he said.

Sadtu EC spokesperson Sindisile Zamisa said the union had raised the issue with the department many times without success.

Zamisa agreed with Ndzomo about teachers not being paid. “It is a norm in this province for teachers not to be paid for more than five months, without anyone facing consequences. This is one thing we are not prepared to tolerate this time around,” he said.

Last month students in Libode near Port St Johns burned down classrooms and two storerooms and removed taps at Mhlanganisweni Technical and Commercial High School in protest at a shortage of teachers.

Students said that at a meeting last week with the Department of Education, parents and teachers, they were told to clean up the damage they had made before there would be any discussion about additional teachers. Grade 12 students were able to start their prelims but students from other grades said they did not know when they would return to school.

By Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik/GroundUp
Published on  South Africa Today – South Africa News

Woman brutally murdered in attempted hijacking – Edenvale

Vanessa Dreyer was brutally murdered last night in front of her husband and two young children, in the Avenues in Edenvale, during an attempted hijacking by bravo males in a White Mercedes-Benz.
Preliminary reports from the cluster suggest that an AK47 was used by the perpetrators. 

Husband reportedly returned fire causing suspects to flee the scene.

REPOST FROM PIETER GROBLER
This young lady is Vanessa Dreyer. She is the wife of my nephew Quinton.

Woman brutally murdered in attempted hijacking – Edenvale – Image – CICA South Africa

They were visiting Vanessa’s sister last night, and as they were pulling out of the driveway on their way home, four black men stormed the car. One started shooting into the car, hitting Vanessa in the heart. Quinton managed to pull out his gun and shoot back, causing the criminals to flee the scene.
He rushed her to hospital, but the medical staff were unable to save her life. Their two boys were in the car with them, but nobody else got physically hurt. I am sure the emotional scars will stay for a lifetime, however.
Our thoughts are with Quinton, my sister Janette, their two boys, and Vanessa’s family. We have no words to describe our shock and horror, and our deep sadness for your loss.
Vanessa, you were a wonderful wife to Quinton, and an amazing mother to your two boys. Rest in peace.
Pieter & Valentina
Laura Oneale - published on South Africa Today – South Africa News

Zuma has too much power and no strategic leadership skills

President Zuma is known for not having strategic leadership skills and being an exemplar of good governance. 

By taking control of the state-owned companies, Zuma has appointed himself as the Minister of Finance, and Minister of public enterprises. The state-controlled entities are in financial trouble and used as a source of income for the ANC movement and friends. The state-controlled companies will be handed over to loyal cronies who will inevitably take instructions from Saxonwold. The top seven state owned enterprises Zuma will control is, Eskom, SAA, Transnet, Denel, SABC, PRASA, and Sanral.

The Treasury is not in favor of throwing away good money after bad. The Minister of Finance is set against the Gupta – Eskom deal and throwing more money into the SAA. There is the PRASA situation and the millions that have been stolen.

The action against Pravin Gordhan is a move to empower Zuma and his allies, to take control of the treasury and give another bailout to the failing SAA. There are reports that Gordhan is not in favor of signing another guarantee of five billion rands for the failed SAA. Another guarantee Zuma wants is the one trillion rand for the nuclear project is perhaps the reason to have Gordhan removed from office.

It is no surprise to South Africans that Zuma’s corruption and connections to the wealthy Gupta family have created dangerous paths for the president. The pending 783 corruption charges against Zuma are not over, and the exposure of self-enrichment through the Gupta family is very different from the reality of state capture.

Would it be a mistake to state that if President Zuma had put his foot down and insisted on services there would be much more contentment in the civil society? Would the ANC have been seen more as the champion of the people? Would Nkandla have become such a big issue? If there was service delivery on a large scale would people have forgiven him for Nkandla or even if he had built 10 Nkandla’s?

All Zuma’s indiscretions are because his enemies had set traps for him, and continue to do so because he gives his enemies the opportunity to capitalize on such? The lack of discipline in the South African society needs to be checked. Can President Zuma finally show us that he is the man who can take care of such or will he continue to be led by his nose through his Intelligence services, which had been severely compromised or else by people such as the “brave” General Officer Commanding of the SA Special Forces?

There are over 50 million people living in the country and most are illiterate who support Zuma and the ANC. The voters who keep the ANC in power in exchange for grants, not job creation. What would happen to the shrinking tax base that supports the ANC?

The more unpopular Zuma and the ANC become, the more desperate the party appears. It is also when the party and the president become dangerous; it’s a time of fighting for survival.

Should Zuma resign or be forced out of office, the next question to ask is who would the ANC replace the president with? It could be somebody far worse than Zuma.

Laura Oneale - published on South Africa Today – South Africa News

Horrific act of cruelty a man throws dog off a building - VIDEO

An horrific act of cruelty when a man with no compassion for animals throws a dog off a building. In the video, the man holds the dog, who is obviously petrified and then throws the dog off the building. The dog experienced a painful death.

It is absolutely shocking knowing there are people who can be cruel toward animals that have no means of defending themselves against violence.

Published on South Africa Today