{"id":105125,"date":"2015-11-25T08:53:23","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T06:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=105125"},"modified":"2015-11-25T08:53:23","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T06:53:23","slug":"debunking-a-racial-myth-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/105125\/debunking-a-racial-myth-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Debunking a racial myth in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A column published by the The South African Institute Of Race Relations (SAIRR) questions the myth that r<span lang=\"EN-US\">epresentivity of the population is a necessary requirement for the development of South Africa and all its people.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">&#8220;No country in the world is likely to achieve racial, cultural or other representitivity unless extreme social engineering is implemented,&#8221; said Sara Gon, policy fellow at the IRR, in an article on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politicsweb.co.za\/news-and-analysis\/south-africas-racial-and-political-myths-and-legen\" target=\"_blank\">PoliticsWeb<\/a>.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">Gon said that even the inequities of apartheid do not warrant imposing simplistic and statistically questionable, numeric representativity on the basis of race to reflect the national demographics of the country.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">&#8220;The need to redress the deleterious effects of apartheid on the black population is not a debatable debate,&#8221; Gon stressed.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\"> &#8220;However, upliftment should be directed at the disadvantaged and thus meet most of the government\u2019s needs to achieve redress for those who were the victims of apartheid. Not all blacks are either disadvantaged or poor anymore.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\">The IRR fellow said that <span lang=\"EN-US\">the national demographic as a measure for redress is not natural, not achievable and largely based on false premises.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">&#8220;To use broad national demographics as a measure is not in itself fair: it\u2019s too broad, it\u2019s unsubtle, it takes no account of cultural difference, it is a false measure, it ensures that mediocrity is forced onto employers (private or public) and it does little to reduce poverty.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">This, Gon said,\u00a0 does not mean that society and government must not do everything possible to uplift its people. &#8220;Of course not, but it must not expect it to be achieved in exact proportion (or more) to the black population: the notion is sinister.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\">The full article can be found on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politicsweb.co.za\/news-and-analysis\/south-africas-racial-and-political-myths-and-legen\" target=\"_blank\">PoliticsWeb<\/a><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on race in South Africa<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/104913\/treating-everybody-as-if-they-are-the-same-is-racist\/\">\u2018Treating everybody as if they are the same is racist\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/104891\/anc-mec-reported-for-allegedly-excluding-young-whites\/\" target=\"_blank\">Whites \u2013 you have been warned: Malema<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to Why it\u2019s hard to be black in South Africa\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/media\/99050\/why-its-hard-to-be-black-in-south-africa\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Why it\u2019s hard to be black in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to Black middle class on the rise in South Africa\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wealth\/98964\/black-middle-class-on-the-rise-in-south-africa\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Black middle class on the rise in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A column by the IRR questions the myth that representivity of the population is a necessary requirement for the development of South Africa and all its people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":94621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26,9583,10837],"class_list":["post-105125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline","tag-irr","tag-politicsweb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105125"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105133,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105125\/revisions\/105133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}