Not unexpectedly, most whites refuse to acknowledge that racial discrimination remains widespread and entrenched in the traditionally white-controlled work places, company boardrooms, law courts, schools and other places. In fact, some commentators have argued that the emphasis on racial discrimination and redress is unconstructive. This viewpoint, with the luxury of looking at racial discrimination with detachment, makes it easier for whites to deny the reality of much of the racism reported by blacks. Racism is more than personal prejudice. It refers not only to discriminatory actions of particular bigots but also institutionalised discrimination through which people of different race groups are dominated.
People often experience racial exclusion, hostility and discrimination in the way institutions work.
As events in the Northern Province and elsewhere in the country show, the casual manner in which racially motivated attacks against blacks are addressed can be traced to the preferential treatment white offenders often receive from police and the courts. Individual blacks soon realise that no amount of hard work or achieved status can protect them from racial oppression in some institutions. In other words, power and institutional resources back racism. We must also understand racism as lived experience. When blacks speak of racial discrimination, they do not speak in abstract concepts of discrimination learned from books.