MyPE

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Ban THESE Pronouns From South African Language

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Despite our much lauded transition into the ‘Rainbow Nation’ South Africa remains divided dangerously along racial lines.

Since 1994 a large (hopefully it just appears large as that segment is the most strident in the media!) portion of our population remains rooted in ethnic and racial politics.

The only way that we have moved on in the last 30 years is in our use of trigger words to describe other people of colour.

Let me take you back to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party):

When it came to the ‘Jewish Question’ the Nazi ‘sensitized’ the German people to the attempted eradication of all Jews by using very innocent words in the beginning.

Those two words were: “Us” and “Them”.

Those two words represent the opening of the door that allowed the Nazis to declare the Jews as “Bolsheviks””, “hoarders of capital”, the list goes on.

The next step was to declare all their intellectual property “verbotten”.

Then the Nazis moved to annex Jewish businesses by declaring that every single business had to be “Aryanized” by taking on ever increasing percentages of shareholders of pure German blood.

All the time using divisive and inflammatory rhetoric based on two words; “Us” and “Them”.

And we all know what happened to Germany – they failed at eradicating the Jewish nation and Hitler offed himself.

Here in South Africa we failed to learn the history lesson of disaster that starts with those two words; “Us” and “Them”:

First with the National Party that took us down the very dangerous road of Separate Development later to be known by the more ugly word, “Apartheid”.

Then we had a brief respite in the first 5 years of our democracy after crushing the Nationalists.

Only for our new masters to allow the two words of division; “Us” and “Them” – to start creeping back into the limelight.

When a white person speaks of “them” we don’t have to guess for long to discern whom they are talking about. Unfortunately the same holds true for a black, coloured or indian South African as well.

Now we are faced with:

  1. Increased ethnic and racial utterances from imbeciles with a microphone,
  2. Ever tightening “Aryanization” through BEE and
  3. Huge pressure on “White Monopoly Capital”.

And it all started with TWO WORDS: “Us” and “Them”.

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.