Tut Assignment B

PSY2013 Social Psychology
Kayla Vardi VRDKAY001
Tutorial Assignment B
Reflection on my experiences with racism, discrimination, and

prejudice
As a White woman, it is difficult to reflect upon my experiences of racism, prejudice, and
discrimination, because not only have I very rarely experienced anything of the sort, but I
also often have to concede my own unconscious biases and prejudices. De La Rey and
Duncan (2003) describe Racism as an ‘institutionalised system whereby members of a
particular racial group are marginalised and dominated by another or others’. Prejudice and
Discrimination work together to build and maintain racism, with prejudice being
preconceived attitudes towards a specific group, and discrimination being the actualization of
said attitudes (De La Rey and Duncan, 2003).
South Africa is a very racially conscious country. I do not mean this in a negative
way; it is obviously understandable and necessary that such a focus on race exists as we still
grapple with the relics of colonialism and apartheid, but being involved in racial discourse is
often a tricky position for me to be in, as I feel as though my voice is not needed or wanted.
This is not always how I felt though. When I was in high school and I was very politically
and socially active and opinionated, I was known as the ‘social justice warrior’ of my school.
This gave me a very skewed idea of my place in racial discourse: because I was known to be,
and considered myself, a committed ally who could never be racist, in a way I thought I had
immunity against racism. This is something I often reflect upon due to the sheer
ridiculousness of my attitude, considering I went to an all-white Jewish school and everyone
who had deemed me so ‘woke’ was also white. I was first awakened to this when I was
engaging in a debate with a biracial girl (about a matter unrelated to race), and when she
began to get rude with me, I said “I was trying to have a civilized conversation with you”,
without considering or even knowing the colonialist and racist undertones of such language.
For the first time it really sunk in that it is not enough for me to merely consider myself an
‘ally’, but it is my duty as a white person holding a plethora of privilege in a country with a
dark history of racism, to constantly be curious, open to correction and criticism, and
recognize that I am not immune to racism or prejudice. While I’d like to believe that I do not
hold racist ideologies or values, it is undeniable that as a white person who will never know
the lived experience of a Black or Coloured person in South Africa, I will sometimes possess
deeply ingrained societal biases.
It is also relevant to note the racism that I witnessed in my own school. This is not
something that I usually like to share because I do not wish to create more vilification of
Jewish people, but unbeknownst to most, South African Jews, at least in the school system to
which I belonged, have their own slur for black people. The word is ‘shoch’ coming from the
Hebrew word ‘shachar’, meaning black. I heard this word being used by my racist peers and
their racist parents alike. Thankfully I do not hear it anymore as no longer have to associate
with those people, but I remember getting into numerous arguments in school, calling out
those who used the word. The response was always, “But it doesn’t affect them, they don’t
even know what it means”. This always seemed worse to me, as I thought, “So you aren’t
satisfied with the slurs that already exist so you have to go and coin a new one?”. It also
seemed so counterintuitive to me for Jewish people, who have had a history of racial
persecution, to devalue others based on race.
While no form of oppression can be compared to one another, De La Rey and Duncan
(2003) do refer to black people and Jewish people as the most notable victims of racism in
the 20th century. While the Jewish people are not a race, but rather can be belonging to any
race, in Nazi Germany, Jews were subjugated and later murdered on racial grounds. This is a
key example of how race is at once a social construct without scientific standing, and also
one of the most decisive justifications for conflict, division, and genocide. As a Jew I have
experienced my fair share of antisemitism, but I can distinguish between that which is racism
(i.e. neo-Nazi rhetoric) and that which is prejudice and discrimination based in other beliefs.
While majority of antisemitism that I’ve witnessed in other countries has been the former,
majority of antisemitism that I’ve witnessed and experienced in South Africa has been rooted
in anti-Zionism, as South Africa is very politically conscious of the Israel/Palestine conflict.
While I do not think all anti-Zionism is antisemitism and I have seen (and been a part of)
much that isn’t, there is a line that I’ve very often seen crossed, leading to left-wing
antisemitism feeling just as scary as right-wing antisemitism. Some examples are being told
that I’m one of ‘the good ones’, or being asked my stance on Israel as soon as I mention that
I’m Jewish, and having my answer be used as a sort of a ‘litmus test’ to measure if I can be
accepted or not, or worse, being met with ‘Free Palestine’ after mentioning that I’m Jewish.
The most vulgar piece of anti-Zionism based antisemitism that I’ve been told is, “The White
Zionist Jewry cult’s obsession with Israel has nothing to do with religion but has to do with
their desire to uphold the white supremacy that the end of Apartheid took away from them”.
While my ancestors were the victims of systemic racism, the landscape of race
discourse and understanding is changing all the time, and as a White woman in South Africa,
I can admit than I have never been a victim of systemic racism, rather, I must consciously and
actively work not to fall into the role of the perpetrator. Likewise, I hope that as I evaluate
and deconstruct my own prejudices, so too do others with regard to their perception of Jewish
people.
Reference List
De la Rey, C., & Duncan, N. (2003). Racism: A social psychological perspective. In

K. Ratele & N. Duncan (Eds.), Social psychology: Identities and relationships (pp. 45-66).
UCT Press.

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PSY2013 Social Psychology

Kayla Vardi VRDKAY001

Reflection on my experiences with racism, discrimination, and

De la Rey, C., & Duncan, N. (2003). Racism: A social psychological perspective. In

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