The past week’s headlines involving the Stellenbosch University student urinating on a fellow student’s belongings are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many incidents black students experience, not only at SU, but at many institutions of higher learning and even at school.
Such incidents raise so many questions, and one can’t but wonder about the type of homes these young perpetrators come from.
They also raise questions about the institutions parents send their children to, because it could be that the act goes against his family values, but racism is something that is enabled at the university. How many people of colour residing a Huis Marais have not experienced a similar incident, but cannot speak up because it simply “is what it is”?
The young boy also comes from a school where diversity is one of the core values, so it also raises the question “What did you feel for the five years you had to deal with black classmates?”
I truly hope this is a lesson for anyone contemplating such behaviour. The student has lost everything before it even started. His dreams to advance and create a name are in tatters because he disregarded another human being. We are human before all else; reject that and you bear the brunt.
