Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 10-11-2017
Political Analyst Ebrahim Fakir says he is bewildered how the debate around Jacques Pauw’s book The Presidents Keepers has taken a binary approach with many people using the contents of the publication to bolster their own racism and dismissing aspects of the book itself.
Fakir was speaking during the ASRI report on Radio Islam on Friday about Sunday Time Journalist Qaanitah Hunters Facebook post about her observations of Pauw’s book launch at the Hyde Park’s Shopping Mall on Wednesday.
Hunter posted that while Pauw’s book was important for democracy and for South Africa, she could not ignore what she saw at the launch: “there was another level of white privilege using the contents of the book to justify their racism and anti-black sentiment.”
Fakir says the criticisms emanating from the launch fetishizes racial identity politics allowing people to throw the ‘baby out with the bath water’.
“You can make adequate critiques about this, but that doesn’t mean that you did end up delegitimising the contents of the book which in increasingly what is happening. And then the core message of what’s contained in the book is what becomes ignored and becomes a sideshow and you start talking about everything else around the book which is actually irrelevant to the major challenges”
However Fakir reiterates that he doesn’t want to downplay or dispute the experience of bigotry and racism experienced by many that attended the launch.
“That’s a reality which lives in people’s heads. Bigotry, prejudice, this sort of almost supercilious attitude of ‘I’m better, we better’ has always been there. It’s always been prevalent amongst groups when they are in a majority or in a particular space.”
Fakir has emphasised that people should be careful not re-racialize the debate of the book saying he can’t understand why a large number black South Africans did not attend the launch as they were not prevented or precluded from attending the event.
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