Racism, Integration and Lectures...

Hello, everyone. I was hoping to have a nice fun post today to coincide with the lovely weather. Unfortunately I couldn't find one, so here is an article from the latest issue of Anthropology Today entitled 'Racial Cultures: Racial Integration at a South African University', by John Sharp and Rehana Vally.

The article raises a lot of interesting questions and uses a huge amount of ethnographic data from the University of Pretoria. Whilst it was fascinating reading there were many more questions raised than answered (which was a bit annoying really).

I never considered the racial tensions at South African Universities, of course I know that there are problems in the country but I assumed that at university students would be more idealistic and left wing than that. The authors also had these assumptions but as they found out they are not true. Although there are very few acts of racism at university, there is more an underlying tension and segregation. Black and white students do not tend to mix in friendship groups, societies or seating arrangements. There have been attempts from university bodies to force students to mix, known as enforced integration. However, in reality this means that whilst black and white students may share a place they do not create a shared space. The article goes on to discuss differences in culture or finances that have created divides. The authors state that black and white students alike prefer to keep within their own cultural groups and find it less embarrassing to be with people who are in a similar financial situation.

But like I said before, yes this is all very interesting but hardly helps to promote further integration or help the situation at all. I suppose though, that no one really knows what to do. This is the main weakness of anthropology - it can provide an illuminating and fascinating analysis of a situation, often revealing more truth than any other discipline could manage but it falls short on actual answers or advice. This article is a prime example of that. Fascinating read but it isn't going to change anything, if I were to rate it, 6/10.