Opinion / Columnist
Tracy Mutinhiri: To use a race card in 2021 is unacceptable. My response!
21 Mar 2021 at 15:58hrs | Views
It took some time to respond to Dr. Tracy Mutinhiri's reasons for leaving Chamisa and going back to Zanu PF. Much as it is your right to associate with whatever party of your choice, to label MDC-Alliance party as white is cheap politicking and must be challenged. It reflects the element of racism and tribalism badly. It could be that in Zimbabwe to air racist views could be politically correct. Zimbabwe is one of the last countries in Africa to gain independence, hence comments that are openly racist are welcome by Zanu PF; a party that thrives both on racism and tribalism. I wonder still how you manage to use racism to justify your reunion with Zanu: Somehow you think passing casual comments that compounds racist attribute makes you more acceptable to a party known for racism and tribalism.
My simple question to you is: Tracy are you racist? Are you tribalist? To be racist is equally tribalistic, make no mistake about it. I realized too after you loudly talked about "You left a White MDC-Alliance party:" nobody, and nobody challenged your racist statement from all corners of race and tribal divide; tacitly giving the impression that racism in Zimbabwe is acceptable taking into consideration our colonial history. If yes indeed you are racist, then you have a wrong belief that you are better than whites and those of other ethnic groups.
Your racist statement was wrong, and I challenge this notion because it is dangerous to our younger generation to consume racist slogans and go unchallenged. Are you aware of the injustices Zanu PF meted on other races and tribes after independence? Gukurahundi is not a myth. You were in Zambia in the struggle in Zambia, Tracy. I remember how forceful and powerful you were back then. We fought the race war but never to replace it with racism and tribalism. Zapu PF propagated the living together of citizens of races and ethnics groups in harmony with each other. There was no racism in our slogans for independence during the struggle because we had white freedom fighters in the ZIPRA wing.
We must remember that the white population you are talking about are Zimbabwean-born citizens whose home is here in Zimbabwe and nowhere else. How are you discriminating them from all of us because of their colour skin? You mentioned "white party" as your bone of contention. White Zimbabweans have the rights and privileges any citizen has in the land. I am talking about a revolution we fought for in Zambia, a liberation struggle that embraced ethnicity and race. Racism is not even a word, but a social construction invented to separate the same species-Homo sapiens: This should be another article for another day.
Tracy, we must let go of narrow-minded racism and tribalism. This prejudiced belief that a section of race or tribe are bad must be fought against; is toxic. Tracy, if you made that statement in Germany: someone will have sued you and rightfully so. It should never be allowed to openly make such hate speech as it causes emotional harm to some section of people who are white in Zimbabwe. We must remember too that the world has become a global village. We live together with people from other nations with white skin colour: the diplomatic fraternity some of them are Caucasians. Have you for once given a thought how affected they feel if you make such statements in Harare, you an established politician uttering those hate words that divide people?
Surprisingly, the picture carrying the article about your departing from MDC-Alliance white party, you were wearing a wig from white people's hair. I did not understand this logic at all. On one hand you hate white people hence you have left their party; but on the other hand your desire to be white is evident in that pic. The lightness of your skin and the wig put you nearer to a white woman. I am made to believe that you hate yourself, starting from the hair that you wish it were a white woman hair, your original hair is never to be seen because it is inferior. It is true that a person might dislike her qualities and take her anger and frustration by saying the abominable. It is established that self-hate can cause racism. The whiteness you inadvertently crave is that what you want to be, but you are not and will never be.
It is painful to realize how the white community in Zimbabwe have lived with the reaction of black Zimbabwean against them. To say MDC-alliance party is a white man's party is wholly intimidating and bullying other section of our diverse societies. I am writing this article solely because my activism will be about erasing racism and tribalism in Zimbabwe. Racism should be made illegal: for someone to intimidate and bully the othering: carelessly uttering hate speeches related to race and ethnicity in Zimbabwe must be held accountable as racist or tribalistic. Minority groups feel threatened and marginalized by the culture of race- and ethnic divide hence we need to put our energies in erasing these narrow confines of race and tribal divide. Zimbabwe is 40 years independent: it is time we embraced the other and learn to live and appreciate our God given cultural differences.
My simple question to you is: Tracy are you racist? Are you tribalist? To be racist is equally tribalistic, make no mistake about it. I realized too after you loudly talked about "You left a White MDC-Alliance party:" nobody, and nobody challenged your racist statement from all corners of race and tribal divide; tacitly giving the impression that racism in Zimbabwe is acceptable taking into consideration our colonial history. If yes indeed you are racist, then you have a wrong belief that you are better than whites and those of other ethnic groups.
Your racist statement was wrong, and I challenge this notion because it is dangerous to our younger generation to consume racist slogans and go unchallenged. Are you aware of the injustices Zanu PF meted on other races and tribes after independence? Gukurahundi is not a myth. You were in Zambia in the struggle in Zambia, Tracy. I remember how forceful and powerful you were back then. We fought the race war but never to replace it with racism and tribalism. Zapu PF propagated the living together of citizens of races and ethnics groups in harmony with each other. There was no racism in our slogans for independence during the struggle because we had white freedom fighters in the ZIPRA wing.
Tracy, we must let go of narrow-minded racism and tribalism. This prejudiced belief that a section of race or tribe are bad must be fought against; is toxic. Tracy, if you made that statement in Germany: someone will have sued you and rightfully so. It should never be allowed to openly make such hate speech as it causes emotional harm to some section of people who are white in Zimbabwe. We must remember too that the world has become a global village. We live together with people from other nations with white skin colour: the diplomatic fraternity some of them are Caucasians. Have you for once given a thought how affected they feel if you make such statements in Harare, you an established politician uttering those hate words that divide people?
Surprisingly, the picture carrying the article about your departing from MDC-Alliance white party, you were wearing a wig from white people's hair. I did not understand this logic at all. On one hand you hate white people hence you have left their party; but on the other hand your desire to be white is evident in that pic. The lightness of your skin and the wig put you nearer to a white woman. I am made to believe that you hate yourself, starting from the hair that you wish it were a white woman hair, your original hair is never to be seen because it is inferior. It is true that a person might dislike her qualities and take her anger and frustration by saying the abominable. It is established that self-hate can cause racism. The whiteness you inadvertently crave is that what you want to be, but you are not and will never be.
It is painful to realize how the white community in Zimbabwe have lived with the reaction of black Zimbabwean against them. To say MDC-alliance party is a white man's party is wholly intimidating and bullying other section of our diverse societies. I am writing this article solely because my activism will be about erasing racism and tribalism in Zimbabwe. Racism should be made illegal: for someone to intimidate and bully the othering: carelessly uttering hate speeches related to race and ethnicity in Zimbabwe must be held accountable as racist or tribalistic. Minority groups feel threatened and marginalized by the culture of race- and ethnic divide hence we need to put our energies in erasing these narrow confines of race and tribal divide. Zimbabwe is 40 years independent: it is time we embraced the other and learn to live and appreciate our God given cultural differences.
Source - Nomazulu Thata
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