Racism is an everyday thing in South Africa - Sipho Hlongwane

Huffington Post SA blogs editor says the media's incident-based reports of racism belies structural issues that need addressing.

Huffington Post SA blogs editor, Sipho Hlongwane, says the media is treating these racism acts as 'incidents' while in fact he believes they are a norm in South Africa.

He says the media uses words like 'outburst' and 'shocking' to describe things that seem to happen almost every December.

On the other hand, Hlongwane says, it is a good thing that there is a strong reaction to racism because these acts need to be called out, challenged stopped. But, he adds, we cannot focus on the acts as if there are no structural issues that need to be dealt with.

Since 1994 the average income for a white household has exponentially increased whereas in black households, although there have been increases it is not at the same rate.

Sipho Hlongwane, Huffington Post SA blogs editor

My argument is that these things don't happen by mistake. It is by design and that is where our focus needs to be.

Sipho Hlongwane, Huffington Post SA blogs editor

This article first appeared on CapeTalk : Racism is an everyday thing in South Africa - Sipho Hlongwane