MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

Microaggressions

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Hi Alan

Lately I’ve been contemplating how so many daily microaggressions happen in our society and how these tiny but impactful behaviours probably just serve to erode whatever goodwill and social capital we have left in South Africa. Early this morning, for instance, the ragged looking men who go litter-picking on garbage- removal day in my suburb, were again out and about doing what they do to survive. I was jogging along at 6am, along the bend of the road, and saw two guys sifting through black bags, and one of the chaps had a “borrowed” shopping trolley, with which he was trundling along. It was a windy morning, and he was battling to keep bits of plastic and stuff from being blown away. In doing so, his trolley rolled into the road a little. There was no traffic at all, apart from a woman in a car, approaching this guy from behind and hooting in annoyance at him, when all she could have done was go around him. The litter pickers were black guys, the woman white. Instant reactivation of all the stereotypes associated with white privilege and I felt sad that it always seems to be the same old playbook.

Then, another incident a few days ago whilst queuing at Home Affairs: me a white woman, who queued for 4,5hours along with fellow citizens of all walks of life to get service. Once access was finally gained into the building and I finally got my turn at the counter, the bristling disdain from the young lady behind the counter was palpable. By the way, she was a black person. As a woman old enough to be her mother or her aunt, and with a polite and mild demeanor, I was stunned to be treated like a second-class citizen by this young lady. I suppose to her I represented a stereotype of a white South African woman of a certain age, who lives out white privilege and she was determined to undermine me to discharge some of her anger.

The same old sad playbook over and over again, and getting even more intense, due to the downward spiral our country is in. That of course, is an analysis for another day. It would just behove everyone to stop lashing out at the other. It’s complicated, people, but let’s just try do our little bit to try and dismantle the tired old stereotypes and win back a little bit of goodwill. But, I know that there is probably going to be the usual chorus of: “It’s their fault, if they wouldn’t be so bad and corrupt and entitled and and and…then things would be better and I would be nicer to them”, or, “Why should I care, if they don’t?” etc etc. Mission Impossible? I am still optimistic…

Kind Regards,

Nina

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Port Elizabethan

This author is a 'catch-all' for occasional articles and letters written to MyPE. The Author of each article can be found in the signature at the bottom of each individual article.