Non-racialism

Non-racialism or aracialism is a South African ideology rejecting racism and racialism while affirming liberal democratic ideals.[1]

History

Non-racialism became the official state policy of South Africa after April 1994,[1] and it is enshrined in Chapter One of the Constitution of South Africa. The term has been criticized as vague, and carrying different meanings even among people sharing the same ideological tradition.[2]

The earliest use of the term was by Karl Polanyi in the 1930s.[3] Neville Alexander follows Robert Sobukwe in defining non-racialism as the acknowledgement of the nonexistence of race as a scientific fact.[4] Robert Mugabe professed a belief in non-racialism in the early 1960s, but later rejected the concept and harshly criticized Nelson Mandela for his embrace of the ideology.[5]

Non-racialism is a stated core policy of the African National Congress. However the adoption of multiracialist policy in the Freedom Charter instead of afrocentric non-racialism is what resulted in the breakaway Pan Africanist Congress in 1959.[6] Some have mistaken this for a black nationalist movement, even among the party itself.

Controversy
  • Some thinkers promote nonracialism as strictly South African. The problem isn't the attribution of origin but the hindering of the idea. They use nonracialism in a strict nationalistic context, which is canceling the term and its purpose. No fundamentally important philosophical idea (good or bad) was ever restricted by nationalism (including nationalism).
  • Some thinkers promote racialist criteria in the definition of nonracialism. They claim that genetical differences amongst different populations aren't enough to be used for racial classification. According to the science of genetics and specifically statistical genetics statistical differences in the genetic code are well attested. The point isn't if these thinkers are right or wrong. The main purpose of nonracialism is to unite humanity without to use bodily criteria for social categorization. Using racialism and racial criteria (of the single human race) as the judging factor for nonracialism, is canceling towards the idea. The purpose of the movement isn't to corporeally analyse the other, and then accept the degree of compatibility. The purpose of the movement is to unite people no matter their physical attributes (similar of different).

References
  1. MacDonald, Michael (2006). Why Race Matters in South Africa. Harvard University Press. p. 106. ISBN 9780674021860.
  2. Ratcliffe, Peter (2005). Race, Ethnicity And Nation: International Perspectives On Social Conflict. Routledge. p. 78. ISBN 9781135361853. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  3. "non-racialism". Oxford Dictionaries. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  4. Ratcliffe, Peter (2005). Race, Ethnicity And Nation: International Perspectives On Social Conflict. Routledge. pp. 80–81. ISBN 9781135361853. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  5. "'Fascinating' video of Mugabe talking 'non-racialism' like Mandela goes viral on social media". News24. 16 September 2017. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
  6. "1949-1961: Period of direct action, non violent resistance and protest". African National Congress. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
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