Facing Race Week 2022

Overcoming the legacies of racism and white supremacy globally, and in South Africa in particular, remains crucial as an intellectual and social engagement at the NWU in its pursuit of being a leading university known for an ethic of care. As we strive to nurture tomorrow’s leaders, we recognise the need for constant reflection on and engagement with the histories of racism in our institution and how those histories continue to shape the communities we participate in.
It is by now well-understood how histories and political economies of racist dispossession and devaluation continue to materially and symbolically gatekeep economic, epistemic and linguistic access to the social goods of citizenship, including education and work.

Against this backdrop and fully acknowledging the loss and devastation that the pandemic has wrought in many lives, Covid-19 has intersected with racist histories and inequalities to differentially impact the lives of ordinary South Africans. It has brought into stark relief the inherited social fault lines and allowed deep reflection on how to avoid reproducing or deepening these as we collectively work towards a post-pandemic “new normal”.
What do you say?