Achieving excellence not only for whites

ONE of the worst insults black and coloured people can level at someone from our communities is to call them "white".

We usually level the charge at those who speak with a "white" accent, participate in "white" activities (like ballet or tennis) or mix with "white" company.

For much of our history, this kind of racial mockery made sort of sense: it was important for us to keep clear lines between ourselves and our "enemy", especially as we fought against apartheid.

Our solidarity was based, in part, on differentiating ourselves from whites.

Now, in the post-apartheid era, we continue to use the term to criticise those who think or behave in a way that is different to the norm.

So homosexuality is branded a "white man's disease" and liberal values are dismissed as being "white-minded".

Often, anything we fear or do not understand is simply labelled "white", and therefore bad.

Ironically though, we also associate certain positive values with whiteness, such as excellence.

At many township schools, our children worry about being labelled "white" if they study too hard, read too much or strive for high marks.

They fear their classmates will isolate them and label them "white" for achieving the kind of outstanding results that would elevate them above their peers.

Because whiteness is associated with things feared or different, even something as desirable as excellence can be turned into a negative because it is marked "white". How did this happen?

During colonialism and apartheid, white people denied blacks and coloureds the opportunity to achieve excellence in almost every field of endeavour - education, medicine, business, politics, sport, and others.

Only in the realm of music were we given some scope, a fact we exploited with enthusiasm: some of the world's best jazz music came from our musicians in that era. But because we were held back in so many other areas of life, we began to associate excellence with whites. Every day, we saw they were the ones who set the standard, who achieved, who earned the acclaim. This experience has had a massive influenceon our collective psyche.

Sadly, this legacy remains with us. Many of us older folk have yet to shake our anxiety that excellence is for whites only.

Though we now enjoy access to education and so many opportunities, we hold ourselves back because we lack the confidence to claim excellence as our own. Deep down, we feel inferior and ashamed. We still feel haunted by our traumatic past.

This is a burden many of us have passed on to our children who continue to see excellence as "white", and therefore something to be avoided. This needs to change.

So what can we do to reclaim excellence for ourselves? Firstly, we must acknowledge how our warped history has damaged us. We must own up to the that fact we were hurt by colonialism and apartheid, and that we will live with this pain for a long time.

We must not dwell on this fact or wallow in self-pity, but rather acknowledge our history so we can move forward with greaterconfidence.

Secondly, we must stop treating our schools as objects of scorn. For so long, we have hated our township schools, seeing them formerly as tools of oppression and now as dumping grounds of incompetence.

We as parents need to invest in these schools so they become places of excellence. We should take part in our children's education by getting involved at school and demanding more of teachers and principals.

Thirdly, we must have higher expectations of our children.

When they come home from school with their test results, we shouldn't ask, "did you pass?" Rather we should ask: "Did you get an A? Were you top of your class? What can you do to improve your marks? What can I do to help you reach a new personal high score on the next test?"

Lastly, we need to take responsibility for our own success.

We cannot rely on government to deliver it, and we can't expect whites to give it to us. We have to read more, study more, train more, learn more, ask more questions and seek more support from the people around us who can help us improve.

If we do this, we will show our children the example they need to become excellent in whatever they want to do.

Let us not forget: excellence is not a "white" virtue, it is a human virtue.

And while we blacks and coloureds may face many obstacles on our path to success, these obstacles can be overcome.

It is time we reclaim excellence for ourselves.

• James is a DA MP and shadow minister of basic education