What is the real enemy of affirmative action?

[Chatmaster]

The 'younger' generations of differing upbringings (for I now know no race!) have very anti-parallel views about each other. Little knowledge or experience or participation in the PAST is a rather lame excuse for the apathetic engagement in this present time.

Good point!

I would find it selfish not to prepare the ground whereupon my children are going to engage with other people in the future.

That is something we both have in common.

Non-engagement of racial and other segregative and discriminative issues now is only a disaster postponed!

I couldn't agree more!

First I need to state that I personally am not affected by AA but that I feel it is a concept that can be improved or a suitable replacement can be found. I am fortunate enough to be in a career that offers very little competition in SA so if I was looking for a job I doubt it would affected me. What I am trying to do is get some kind of debate going in terms of the concept of AA and how it should be improved. At this stage it does contribute to racial divide amongst all races.

However, the speed at which it is being done is not the problem, it is the actual implementation of it. If we look at the serious issues that SA is dealing with in terms of how crime and unemployment can be impacted if the managing of processes was managed correctly. Education processes lack the experience and expertise, nor is it freely available or publicized. Yes there are workshops presented and so forth, but just how much education is being done in the correct manner and how much publicity is given to the topic?

Change ultimately requires a change in culture or the creation of a new culture. By just putting a process together that enables benefits to individuals based on their gender, race or disability means that you can create a monster that can destroy the original intention of the process. Does this now mean that because I am suffered because of apartheid, government now owes me? Does this mean I am special and has allot due to me because I am a product of apartheid? Am I supposed to get all things in life free?

If you look at voting times and comments made by the general public it becomes clear that there is a common feeling amongst South Africans of all race and gender groups that they are owed something by government. If look at the amount of unhappiness day after day, it is also clear. Is it perhaps time that we create a new culture? A culture where we as South Africans educate each other in entrepreneurship and show each other what a difference an attitude change can accomplish? To make each other realize that nothing is for free, nothing is owed and due and that if we work together and hard we can change the future for all of us?

Many white people see AA as reverse racism and blame it for their misery. A natural human reaction when it comes to accountability. It is natural to be in denial for taking responsibility of your own actions and future. But then again what should you feel like if you are ambitious and know you cannot shoot for the top job regardless of what you do because of racial discrimination? Denial of responsibility also seems to be the new culture that has been introduced in SA regardless of race. Perhaps changing the culture by use of the media, advertising, education and team building will accomplish more than AA can.

A culture change can have a great effect on many issues we are facing, including AA. Is there a way we can accomplish this?

[Dr KGNKhumalo]

Just some more observations!

Acute awareness (the positive kind) allows one to percieve the effect of apartheid to someone other than oneself. On a counter-note it can heighten one's introspective look and the jeopardy of blame-storming looms large.

The implementation of such a wide-reaching concept can only be difficult. The prejudices have to be very well-defined and yet the programme (as it should only be a programme!) should retain enough flexibility to cater for progressive elaboration. The curent SA situation presents problems on several fronts.

A phased approach could be a solution! Currently it may have to be the quick-fix projects affecting employment and the lower level human needs in Maslowian hierarchy - the physiological. Access to food, jobs, good education etc.

However, as the base human needs are satisfied or at least results are being observed - structured reviews and focus on the medium to higher level needs are then the requisite adjustments that may produce a climate of equitable development for people that have overcome the first few barriers of ACCESS!

The next need for SAFETY needs to be tackled head-on. This will go along way in bringing reassurance to those outside of AA favour. Crime, Job Security etc

As people see and are presented with transparent reviews of the AA performance the ESTEEM needs of society will be satsfied. It should not be seen - as it can easily be interpreted to be at the moment - to be benefiting the so-called victim at the expensed of the newly-disadvantaged. 'A nation can never be strong (empower its poor) by bringing down its STRONG' -(ATTEMPTED an Abe Lincoln there).

In its final phase all people can self -actualise. A lot of people ar in jobs outside of their experience traaining or education but because they have the right physiological attributes. This is where the reality sets in. All things shoiuld be equal at this point then a meritocracy emerges.

Therefore a time frame needs to be established. Continued dependence on the 'experimental' AA objectives may in the interim produce the right demographics but without the fundamental benefit of deriving the change required to make for a collective society.

At this stage of my career which started even before apartheid was dismantled AA does not appeal to my needs! I have some recognition in my profession in the UK and small parts of SA. I cannot demean myself to be an instrument of AA when it means a bit of show-boating to present the right colour. It is a profession that cannot be satisfied by quotas

[Dave A]

The 'younger' generations of differing upbringings (for I now know no race!) have very anti-parallel views about each other.

I wonder how much of those anti-parallel views are fundamentally class driven nowadays. If I look at my kids' circle of friends, it is very representative of the current demographics of the middle class, and race (and religion BTW) seem to mean nothing to them.

Little knowledge or experience or participation in the PAST is a rather lame excuse for the apathetic engagement in this present time.

Absolutely agree. But if the enforced engagement is seen as unfair, we can't expect unbridled support either. Which leads me to my main underlying concern about AA implimentation....

Dr. Khumalo refers to the hierarchy of needs - the management of societal thinking and perception also has some fundamental basics. In this instance, one can't remove racial prejudice from society by highlighting and emphasising and judging along racial lines. You are sensitising people to issues of race; increasing the value of race as an issue in the minds of people when the supposed goal is a society that does not even consider race in its interactions.

And yet at the same time we must recognise and goal to redress imbalances in our society that are distinctly racial in nature. A challenge indeed and a seeming paradox if those corrective measures are not to be drawn along racial lines.

Getting quality education to all our youth is a clear starting point for corrective action. Where you end up in life is more a matter of state of mind and appropriate knowledge gained than the "wealth" of our parents for the vast majority of us. For all but an exceptional few, the main benefit of having parents of some means is a quality education. Focusing on this point alone goes a long way to leveling the playing fields.

But we also tend to inherit much of our parents' paradigms - a rather critical point to address if that paradigm is not healthy. And it is here where I simply have to applaud Dr Khumalo's point on depth of leadership. We need youth that are exposed to new paradigms, ones without coloured stereotypes, as soon as possible, from people of sound character that they can interact with, respect and strive to emulate.