The Blacker the Berry the Sweeter the Juice

By Osama kaSethenjwa Dumakude

Your melanin can sometimes be a curse. I was born black and bieng black can make you a suspect.
The reasons I say this is because it’s sort of like I was born with all the negative black stereotypes. Because I am a young black man, people expect me to play basketball and football coz I am black. People expect me to be a great pansula or a gunman because I am black. People expect me to listen to rap ,kwaito and maskandi because I am black. Nobody expects me to swim better than Roland Mark Schoeman merely because I am black.When I was younger than this I met a beautiful chick working in the bar and I adored this sleek young woman a lot. He was extremely dark skinned - "navy black". She had a friend who was "so light he could be white". My brother was beside himself. "Why", he asks "do you have to like the dark one?" "If you have children with her" she shouted "they will be too dark!" I remember saying to him: "The Blacker the berry the sweeter the juice." And he rejoinder - "Yeah, but who needs diabetes. - Mazwendoda Mkhize

From then I have ben asking myself: what makes one blacker than the other? Is it the colour of the skin? Is the culture or lifestyle he/she opts to pursue? Are we black by virtue of our surnames or names or our deeds?Some of us associate “black” with primitiveness, death, morbidity, intimidation, coldness, and uncertainty. In interior design they associate white with cleanliness, optimism, safety, innocence and enlightenment. These entire connotations may differ from person to person. The reasons for this are various, but the most widely accepted explanations are that night is experienced by humans as negative and dangerous. In traditional class-based Western cultures "pale" skin indicated genteel domestic or intellectual indoor-work as opposed to rough outdoor labour in the fields. In our daily discourse we use words like blackmagic, black comedy, blacklist, blackmarket, black sheep, black propaganda etc to refer to undesirability. All these words have negative symbolism surrounding a word “black”. A black cat often means bad luck and that you will probably not live. If you sink the black eight-ball in billiards before all others are out of play, you lose. During the Apartheid era( and even today) the school boards were black and they were using the white chalk to write on. What can you say about this? However black have positive symbolism. Ask any Kenyan Maasai person, they will tell you that the colour black is associated with rain clouds, becoming a symbol of life and prosperity. In fashion black is considerd reliably stylish.. Black can also be seen as the colour of prestige: for example, limousines are usually in black and black tuxedos are worn at black tie functions. Black can be seen as a colour of seriousness and authority. Many priests traditionally wear black. Lawyers and judges often wear black robes, as are university graduates.

However , being black these days has been made easier than before. Thanks to affirmative action. I personally don’t think affairmative action does our country any good. The fact that we were socio-politically disadvantaged does not mean we have to get preferential treatment. It is a modified form of apartheid directed to whites. Affirmative action is an indirect form of racism, causing unemployment, disenchantment and a new generation of odium and bitterness amongst whites. This beast called Affirmative Action will never be the answer that South Africa needs, rather the problem. Do I have to be proud of the job that I got just because I am black? What if one is white and yet did not benefit from the past apartheid government. Is it fair for Trevor Manuel’s (heis white)child to benefit from affairmative action? Ponder about this!!