Many universities across the country are seeing heightened tensions in the midst of the #FeesMustFall movement, and often the divide seems to stretch along racial lines.

A case in point is the #TakeBackWits march from two weeks back, where the tension was plain for all to see (HERE).

Now we come across an opinion piece on TimesLive, titled ‘I’m white. Am I still welcome here?’, and it caught our eye.

We don’t necessarily agree with what’s being argued here, but let’s hand over the floor to Steven Boykey Sidley and let him have his say.

Below are some excerpts from the piece:

Were I to ask it of black friends and colleagues, the answer would be a definitive yes, of course. But I am not so sure, because I have never asked this question until a few weeks ago, and so I ask it here.

Are we still welcome here?

A short time before the recent student protests I was invited to the Joburg Art Fair. As we were leaving, a guest arrived in a head-to-toe outfit that was covered in the words “Fuck White People”. People clustered around her as devotees to a prophet. The guest basked in the attention. I thought: it is an abstract political statement, I should not take it personally. And then I went home and thought little more of it.

But then the recent university protests arrived and a slow normalisation of this language took hold. A young white woman of my acquaintance arrives in class to find “Kill Whites” written on the whiteboard. This is not the first time. She now wants to leave the university she attends, despondent and bewildered.

A crowd of belligerent “Fallists” enter a lecture hall and point at the white students: “We have no reason to coexist peacefully with you, ever.”

Another young white left-wing student in a politics class tries to make a point in an interactive session and is told: “Shut up, you white bitch, your view is irrelevant.” And so she changes her major, which she loved.

Probably time he addresses the white elephant in the room…

I am also acutely aware that the very articulation of such a question feeds directly into the narrative that whites like me understand nothing of black pain, for whom such questions should be treated with utter contempt. And yet I am moved to ask it, against the advice of friends…

Perhaps my antennae for trouble is overdeveloped – for thousands of years my tribe has warily looked to see when the welcome mat will be pulled up. And then we leave as fast as possible. And it has not escaped my attention that Mcebo Dlamini, along with his vile anti-white racism, is only too happy to spice it up with dollops of vitriolic anti-Semitism and archaic but still dangerous tropes about world domination. And now, in jail, he is seen as a leader and model for thousands of students.

More on Dlamini and that Hitler incident HERE, in case you’re unsure what he’s going on about.

The final few sentences:

So, if not for me, who does not have the energy to start again elsewhere, then at least for my children – are we still welcome here? Or will the harsh spotlight of history forever damn us?

Can anyone tell me, are we still welcome here?

No doubt this one will get people riled up, and as always there are going to be some vastly different views on what Steven has to say.

We’ve just plonked it here for you to have a look at – nothing more, nothing less.

[source:timeslive]