Racism is not something that happens in the subconcious

On Saturday night after unsuccessfully trying to work we arrived at the Rat (I have to state that it was my first time just to emphasise how low I was prepared to go to cheer myself up). Anyway we met a guy friend of one of my friends and his “crew”, of which two worked in the circus and the rest just behaved as if they did as well. About 10 minutes into a conversation about their careers, one of the idiots replied, “I tell that k***** to move those boxes over there”, this was followed by a few more racist remarks in reference to some black students who were in suites at the party. The three of us protested but you could see that it went in the one ear and out the other. Naturally the evening ended shortly after that but on our way out we heard two white guys saying the same racist remarks. We had had enough so told them to shut it and all they could say was that, “evidently you girls do not live in the real world and you think Grahamstown is the only place on earth”. They then said something about the naivety of first years and that we needed to get mugged and then will be just as racist.

I do not think that naivety or being a first year has anything to do with being a racist or not. It is so easy to go around and blame everything on black people but even though I am incredibly naïve according to that bight racist spark, I am mature enough to know that racism is a personal choice and that there are better ways to deal with muggings and such events. I will admit that I had a similar attitude when I arrived at Rhodes, and at first I would say that I was racist without realising and that I could not control my thoughts. But I have come to realise that racism is an active choice not something that happens on a subconscious level. I believe that we have control over those thoughts. Racist thoughts become words that are shouted into the ears of an individual who does not need to hear them and these words then create a terrible world for both the person that utters them and for the person who listens. We all need to take control of our thoughts and make a stand against those who think that you are naïve in doing this.