http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/gillianschutte/2013/01/02/dear-white-people/

Settler Sister

Your letter strikes me. I came across it posted on facebook on the wall of one of my peers from high school. Being an excellent school with an accumulation of very strong individuals, we were certainly not educated in a walled up environment. Although, as a twenty one year old, I am sorry to say, I have chosen to guide my thoughts of the future with the fantasy idea of my (our?) generation being the one with the bright future of South Africa in its hands.

Sadly, my Fantasy must be misguided, because in all of my experiences, colour has not been an issue. I have obviously heard about and read reports of individual incidents in the areas I found myself in, but mostly, I chose to blame them on the short sighted, because they are there, so many of them. The individuals who cannot see past the tips of their own noses, and nurture prejudice into their offspring, I guess that they can be traced back to your inspiration for your letter. This is a sad reality, but I can guarantee you that these people will not get far in life.  If I may so inquire, what is it that pushed you so far as to put these words together in such a manner?

Your ‘crash course’ for the almost 20 year old ‘new’ reality has kept me up this evening, paining to have a conversation with you. I must admit, that I do believe that I have blinkers on, but wish to, by engaging with more experienced people such as yourself, to make these dissolve.

I must then, for interest of preservation of my fantasy of our generation make specific references to your letter. You say that you ‘humbly’ ask, but your use of strong wording suggests otherwise. You suggest letting go of the past, but does the very voice of your letter not once again open up the wounds of our country? You refer to the fact that time is needed, do you expect then to receive something you are not allowing yourself?

Time, most certainly is needed, but an apology for the actions of ancestors, have we not moved past that, or am I confided to this idea by my blinkers?

Commendation for your words must, I ask of you, not be altogether ignored just for the fact that we might not see exactly eye-to-eye. The “white as right” view which you speak of, I believe that I might know something of, although a white central reality seems to once again be outside of my framework. With a world-wide history of colonisation, I fear the Westernisation, or, I guess a “white as right” view has gripped our country. This reality threatens the very nature of man, and more so, today still, the in-touch-with-nature lifestyle of Africa.

Reflection upon unearned privilege is hard for me to do, as I am of the idea that the people that I know work hard for what they have. Although, poor black and white people (also, for want to bridge a gap found in your letter, considering the poor of all South African races.) do not cannot be doomed as deserving of their state.

I do wish whole-heartedly that whiteness has become invisible to you, but if your “I”-centred poetic letter is understood correctly, this is not the case?

Speaking of stolen land, do you consider facts like the Kimberly area being sold by a rich Khoi man to the British? When you look at discrimination of differences, do you consider that the English and the Afrikaaners too had a fractioned past. For any reference, one might inquire when that friction ended and how much of it is still felt today.

The Media must be commended for the visible reach toward a wholly South African portrayed television programmes. I do fear that different ideas of you countries are being fed by different forms of printed media reporting the stories which cater to their reader base to insure their income, therefore, misguided media coverage can be agreed with. If one were to say that black people are pinned as being racist when they speak their truth, is it then also considerable to say that white people are pinned as the accusers when they try to build up a sense of pride in their different cultures, other than being subject to a sense of regret and guilt.

Is the South African media largely white owned? This infantile idiocy, is it then seen in the SABC?

Some clarity would defiantly be needed concerning these national debates which do not concern the white people, because how then are these debates national if they do not include the whole nation?

One point which I think, Settler sister, binds our voices, is our outrage of a slaughter mission. Recently I received chain mail containing exact dates scheduled to specific criminal acts. As I am sure there have been many more such ideas passed on, I made a point of it to put together a rather harshly worded response. Is it possible for people to be so hopeless?!

Issues of poverty to be directed to white people seems like an un-thaught-out request, does it not? Are politicians not to some extent the richest in the country, and even so, they are making the poor more poor, should they not fix that? By all means, I am not saying that we should not all help our fellow man. Please just consider the fact that our government actually pays women to have children. In essence, the government wants to give money to those who cannot support their families, a noble act. What is happening however is than girls are having babies as soon as their bodies allow them to, so that they can get money. This claim is not made at random, this is from experience. Furthermore, I am sure that these accusations of the poor are not a blanket reference to people who are in dire need, but rather, from experience of people who turn down paying jobs, for the comfort of their township lives. Once again, reference to experience.

As for Zuma critique, as a leader, he will always be stoned by the wants of each different group, therefore, I understand that there would be very different comments on his work. Not being very politically well-read then, I fear that whatever I might say here might not be intellectual; however, I cannot say that any bit of this response to your letter is.

In putting my thoughts together, what I have put together here, is a semi-insightful, probably unobjective venture to understand who you feel Settler sister. I wish to understand, so that we may better understand one another, in the interest of our country.

Is it necessary for you to point your finger at every single white person in South Africa? Are there no good white people here? If so, as you are still expecting an apology for the past, would you get one? If you do know good white people, and I hope you do, could I implore you to lessen your personal want of a collective apology? (may I add that it pains me to type words like ‘good white people’, in an ideal South Africa, one would have the intellectual drive and freedom to speak only of people.)

What our country needs then, is not to be a rainbow nation, but something more to the likes of a vaal river. In its essence, a rainbow divides colour. A river, flows as one, in peace, subject to the elements to feed the prospects of hope planted at its banks. I ask you consider this upon consideration of your heartfelt and insightful letter to the whites.

The reality then, of your words is that the hope of a happier future then falls to our children one day, in the hope that we ourselves do not nurture them with impressions of a past which they never knew.

In response then to your ‘Oh ja’; I sincerely hope that you do not consider my words as negative and vile. I truly wish to ‘get over myself, and with the current programme’, but cannot do so without fully understanding the hurt and rage which you feel.

For the sake of our country, (and this is at such a proportion just by the fact that I have come across your letter, and can respond to it) with the many voices, experiences and individuals that come together through this conversation, we need to realise that it is not as easy as the blink of an eye. 20 almost 20 years later, and it felt as though your letter is the voice of 1994.

(All of the above was typed as under the impression that you are a black girl more or less at my age, that is how I read your letter, with this clarity this morning, I have decided to make no changes to my letter to you but would merely like to add that I find the language use even more unnerving now, and to some extent I blame people like you who carry over and impress your grievances upon my generation. I admit that personally I may not understand the full force of what my peers feel, but through this response, I hope that you can respect that we do care.)

Kindly

Jana Reynolds