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Cape Town – Everyone should be black for a while.
That is what George Wright, noted African-American scholar, used to say.
“If you could look at the world through the eyes of someone you think to be different from you, you would get a good perspective from their point of view,” he said as guest speaker at a business breakfast held by the SA Ubuntu Foundation at the Hilton Hotel in Cape Town.
“As a minority in the US I always needed to understand the white opinion.”
Yet he decided that people in general make too much of race.
“Accept your race, but don’t make too much about it. Your race is determined through an accidental birth. Why make such a big deal about it,” he said.
Wright is president of the Prairie View A&M University in Texas. Prior to that he was part of the faculty of the University of Texas and Duke University. His books include Legal Lynchings.
“Despite all the problems in the US regarding race, diversity, affirmative action and inclusion, there are signs of progress made towards total equality,” he said.
“The US at the end of the Second World War and the US of today, just like the South Africa of today, is a different place in terms of race. Take comfort in the fact that there has been progress and there will continue to be progress.”
He admitted that he certainIy benefitted from affirmative action in the US.
“I was born in 1950 into a world where race determined what you could and could not do,” he said.
“My father and other family members were drafted to fight in the Second World War at 17 years of age. When they came back after having helped to beat the Nazi’s, they could not go shops in Kentucky for instance.”
Until Wright was 15 years old he could not use the public library in his town. He had to use a book mobile.
“I used to ask my mother what white people do in bathrooms that we don’t do, since we could not use the same public bathrooms,” he said.
He also remembered how he could only go to the amusement park in his town on “negro days”.
As late as 1960 there were places in Kentucky where no black could live and there were still signs reading “No negroes be here after dark”.
The assassination of Martin Luther King that led to “white” universities wanting to do something more about affirmative and positive change.
Wright obtained a scholarship to the University of Kentucky and nine years later he had a PhD in history from Duke University.
“I am now 63 years old and new opportunities still come my way,” he said.
“Therefore we who benefitted from affirmative action have the big responsibility to make sure society benefits from what we had gained too. People like me must find ways to plough back into society.”
He said people should not be scared to talk about these issues of race, affirmative action and diversity.
“Be proud of who you are, whether you are black, white or gay,” he said.
Kevin Chaplin, founder and managing director of the SA Ubuntu Foundation said there are major challenges in South Africa and to him the next elections are even more important than in 1994.
“South Africa is at a crossroads. The question is whether we can change what we are doing. The bottom line is that it is important for business people,” he said.
“We must get the practical meaning of ubuntu out there in the world.”
- Fin24
That is what George Wright, noted African-American scholar, used to say.
“If you could look at the world through the eyes of someone you think to be different from you, you would get a good perspective from their point of view,” he said as guest speaker at a business breakfast held by the SA Ubuntu Foundation at the Hilton Hotel in Cape Town.
“As a minority in the US I always needed to understand the white opinion.”
Yet he decided that people in general make too much of race.
“Accept your race, but don’t make too much about it. Your race is determined through an accidental birth. Why make such a big deal about it,” he said.
Wright is president of the Prairie View A&M University in Texas. Prior to that he was part of the faculty of the University of Texas and Duke University. His books include Legal Lynchings.
“Despite all the problems in the US regarding race, diversity, affirmative action and inclusion, there are signs of progress made towards total equality,” he said.
“The US at the end of the Second World War and the US of today, just like the South Africa of today, is a different place in terms of race. Take comfort in the fact that there has been progress and there will continue to be progress.”
He admitted that he certainIy benefitted from affirmative action in the US.
“I was born in 1950 into a world where race determined what you could and could not do,” he said.
“My father and other family members were drafted to fight in the Second World War at 17 years of age. When they came back after having helped to beat the Nazi’s, they could not go shops in Kentucky for instance.”
Until Wright was 15 years old he could not use the public library in his town. He had to use a book mobile.
“I used to ask my mother what white people do in bathrooms that we don’t do, since we could not use the same public bathrooms,” he said.
He also remembered how he could only go to the amusement park in his town on “negro days”.
As late as 1960 there were places in Kentucky where no black could live and there were still signs reading “No negroes be here after dark”.
The assassination of Martin Luther King that led to “white” universities wanting to do something more about affirmative and positive change.
Wright obtained a scholarship to the University of Kentucky and nine years later he had a PhD in history from Duke University.
“I am now 63 years old and new opportunities still come my way,” he said.
“Therefore we who benefitted from affirmative action have the big responsibility to make sure society benefits from what we had gained too. People like me must find ways to plough back into society.”
He said people should not be scared to talk about these issues of race, affirmative action and diversity.
“Be proud of who you are, whether you are black, white or gay,” he said.
Kevin Chaplin, founder and managing director of the SA Ubuntu Foundation said there are major challenges in South Africa and to him the next elections are even more important than in 1994.
“South Africa is at a crossroads. The question is whether we can change what we are doing. The bottom line is that it is important for business people,” he said.
“We must get the practical meaning of ubuntu out there in the world.”
- Fin24
