Non-racialism

Last updated

Non-racialism, aracialism or antiracialism is a South African ideology rejecting racism and racialism while affirming liberal democratic ideals. [1]

History

Non-racialism became the official state policy of South Africa after April 1994, [1] and it is enshrined in Chapter One of the Constitution of South Africa. The term has been criticized as vague, and carrying different meanings even among people sharing the same ideological tradition. [2]

The earliest use of the term was by Karl Polanyi in the 1930s. [3] Neville Alexander follows Robert Sobukwe in defining non-racialism as the acknowledgement of the nonexistence of race as a scientific fact. [4] Robert Mugabe professed a belief in non-racialism in the early 1960s, but later rejected the concept and harshly criticized Nelson Mandela for his embrace of the ideology. [5]

Non-racialism is a stated core policy of the African National Congress; however, the adoption of multiracialist policy in the Freedom Charter instead of Afrocentric non-racialism is what resulted in the breakaway Pan Africanist Congress in 1959. [6] Some have mistaken this for a black nationalist movement, even among the party itself.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African National Congress</span> Political party in South Africa

The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election installed Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa. Cyril Ramaphosa, the incumbent national President, has served as President of the ANC since 18 December 2017.

Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, especially with the aim of gaining and maintaining the nation's sovereignty (self-governance) over its homeland to create a nation-state. It holds that each nation should govern itself, free from outside interference (self-determination), that a nation is a natural and ideal basis for a polity, and that the nation is the only rightful source of political power. It further aims to build and maintain a single national identity, based on a combination of shared social characteristics such as culture, ethnicity, geographic location, language, politics, religion, traditions and belief in a shared singular history, and to promote national unity or solidarity. Nationalism, therefore, seeks to preserve and foster a nation's traditional culture. There are various definitions of a "nation", which leads to different types of nationalism. The two main divergent forms are ethnic nationalism and civic nationalism.

Racism is discrimination and prejudice towards people based on their race or ethnicity. Racism can be present in social actions, practices, or political systems that support the expression of prejudice or aversion in discriminatory practices. The ideology underlying racist practices often assumes that humans can be subdivided into distinct groups that are different in their social behavior and innate capacities and that can be ranked as inferior or superior. Racist ideology can become manifest in many aspects of social life. Associated social actions may include nativism, xenophobia, otherness, segregation, hierarchical ranking, supremacism, and related social phenomena.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thabo Mbeki</span> President of South Africa from 1999 to 2008

Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who was the second black president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Congress (ANC). Before that, he was deputy president under Nelson Mandela between 1994 and 1999.

White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine of scientific racism and was a key justification for European colonialism.

Hindutva is a political ideology encompassing the cultural justification of Hindu nationalism. The political ideology was formulated by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1923. It is used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other organisations, collectively called the Sangh Parivar.

An ethnicity or ethnic group is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of perceived shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, society, nation, religion, or social treatment within their residing area. The term ethnicity is often used interchangeably with the term nation, particularly in cases of ethnic nationalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Communist Party</span> Political party in South Africa

The South African Communist Party (SACP) is a communist party in South Africa. It was founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), tactically dissolved itself in 1950 in the face of being declared illegal by the governing National Party under the Suppression of Communism Act, 1950. The Communist Party was reconstituted underground and re-launched as the SACP in 1953, participating in the struggle to end the apartheid system. It is a member of the ruling Tripartite Alliance alongside the African National Congress and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and through this it influences the South African government. The party's Central Committee is the party's highest decision-making structure.

White nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that white people are a race and seeks to develop and maintain a white racial and national identity. Many of its proponents identify with and are attached to the concept of a white nation, or a "white ethnostate".

Identity politics is a political approach wherein people of a particular race, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, social background, social class, or other identifying factors develop political agendas that are based upon these identities. Identity politics is deeply connected with the idea that some groups in society are oppressed and begins with analysis of that oppression. The term is used primarily to describe political movements in Western societies, covering nationalist, multicultural, women's rights, civil rights, and LGBT movements. Depending on which definition of identity politics is assumed, the term could also encompass other social phenomena which are not commonly understood as exemplifying identity politics, such as governmental migration policy that regulates mobility based on identities, or far-right nationalist agendas of exclusion of national or ethnic others. For this reason, Kurzwelly, Pérez and Spiegel, who discuss several possible definitions of the term, argue that it is an analytically imprecise concept.

Color blindness is a term that has been used by justices of the United States Supreme Court in several opinions relating to racial equality and social equity, particularly in public education. The term metaphorically references the medical phenomenon of color blindness. Beyond, psychology professionals also study the racial color blindness approach in social psychology and multicultural psychology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apartheid</span> South African system of racial separation

Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on baasskap, which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically through minoritarianism by the nation's dominant minority white population. According to this system of social stratification, white citizens had the highest status, followed by Indians and Coloureds, then Black Africans. The economic legacy and social effects of apartheid continue to the present day, particularly inequality.

Reverse racism, sometimes referred to as reverse discrimination, is a concept that affirmative action and similar color-conscious programs for redressing racial inequality are a form of anti-white racism. The concept is often associated with conservative social movements and reflects a belief that social and economic gains by black people cause social and economic disadvantages for white people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Communal violence</span> Violence between ethnic or other communal groups

Communal violence is a form of violence that is perpetrated across ethnic or communal lines, the violent parties feel solidarity for their respective groups, and victims are chosen based upon group membership. The term includes conflicts, riots and other forms of violence between communities of different religious faith or ethnic origins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the African National Congress</span> History of the South African organization and political party

The African National Congress (ANC) has been the governing party of the Republic of South Africa since 1994. The ANC was founded on 8 January 1912 in Bloemfontein and is the oldest liberation movement in Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Race and ethnicity in Latin America</span>

There is no single system of races or ethnicities that covers all modern Latin America, and usage of labels may vary substantially.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-racism</span> Beliefs, actions, movements, and policies adopted or developed to oppose racism

Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate actions which are intended to provide equal opportunities for all people on both an individual and a systemic level. As a philosophy, it can be engaged in by the acknowledgment of personal privileges, confronting acts as well as systems of racial discrimination, and/or working to change personal racial biases. Major contemporary anti-racism efforts include Black Lives Matter organizing and workplace anti-racism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural racism</span> Alleged type of racism that discriminates people for being culturally different

Cultural racism, sometimes called neo-racism, new racism, postmodern racism, or differentialist racism, is a concept that has been applied to prejudices and discrimination based on cultural differences between ethnic or racial groups. This includes the idea that some cultures are superior to others or in more extreme cases that various cultures are fundamentally incompatible and should not co-exist in the same society or state. In this it differs from biological or scientific racism, which refers to prejudices and discrimination rooted in perceived biological differences between ethnic or racial groups. The term has been criticised as being based in moral relativism and enabling systemic or culturally normalised bigotry among minority groups.

Sisonke Msimang is a South African writer, activist and political analyst based in Perth, Western Australia, whose focus is on race, gender, and politics. She is known for her memoir Always Another Country: A memoir of exile and home (2017) and The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela (2018), a biography of anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

Allegations of apartheid have been made about various countries.

References

  1. 1 2 MacDonald, Michael (2006). Why Race Matters in South Africa. Harvard University Press. p. 106. ISBN   9780674021860.
  2. Ratcliffe, Peter (2005). Race, Ethnicity And Nation: International Perspectives On Social Conflict. Routledge. p. 78. ISBN   9781135361853 . Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  3. "non-racialism". Oxford Dictionaries. Archived from the original on 5 February 2018. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  4. Ratcliffe, Peter (2005). Race, Ethnicity And Nation: International Perspectives On Social Conflict. Routledge. pp. 80–81. ISBN   9781135361853 . Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  5. "'Fascinating' video of Mugabe talking 'non-racialism' like Mandela goes viral on social media". News24. 16 September 2017. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
  6. "1949-1961: Period of direct action, non violent resistance and protest". African National Congress. Retrieved 6 February 2018.