KAO DUWO

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KAO DUWO

Learning activity 1: Personal stereotypes creating othering

22 May 2024, 22:15 Publicly Viewable

I have stereotyped white people as having no structure or respect within their households. Growing up in an African household with Batswana parents, respect has been instilled in me. My parents are not really strict compared to what African parents are perceived as, however I always knew what lines never to cross. I always looked at white children as the type to tell their parents to 'Shut up.' From what I was exposed to, they would also be open about being in a relationship to their parents from a young age, because of my culture endorsing only introducing your spouse to your family when you're approaching getting married, it made me see them as disrespectful. However I learnt that respect is merely respecting boundaries, therefore if our boundaries are not the same, we can never be respectful in the same way. This stereotype is problematic because it makes them seem discourteous, and exacerbates rasicm and its results which creates othering. It creates a clear distinction between white and black people and makes white people seem unrelatable, and of a different species.

I stereotyped Xhosa people, women especially as irrational and crazy and Zulu people, men especially as violent. The way that Xhosa women are portrayed in media as irrational and 'wild' led to me believing it. The whole 'crazy Xhosa girlfriend' narrative and people's fixation on it led to me expecting all Xhosa girls to be that way. Similarly I expected all Zulu men to be violent due to their association to the taxi business and gun violence. These stereotypes led to me being closed off to people of the Nguni tribe and made me see them as uncivil. This resulted in othering people it further separated me from other black people and enforces tribalism making them seem different to me and as if I'm pure and their not, when there are actually a lot similarities between how people of different South African cultures carry themselves.