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Language Issues and Racism Within Universities - Coggle Diagram
Language Issues and Racism Within Universities
"How Students Movements Shaped a New South Africa"
Rehad Desai spent the first 23 years of his life in exile.
In 1963, when Rehad was just six months old his family was forced to leave South Africa and relocate to the UK because his father was a leader of a liberation movement.
His father continued leading the liberation movement from the UK after fleeing South Africa. He lead the Pan Africanist Congress.
The liberation movement called for a free and equal South Africa with focuses in school uniforms, the right to protest and corporal punishment.
In 1990 Rehad and his father returned to South Africa after the regime was forced to allow exiles to return home.
In 1994 the white supremacist regime was defeated
Rehad continued his post-grad studies at Wits University
Blacks were a minority and liberal universities were in denial of their racially exclusive culture
Rehad was politcally active at Uni and represented the post-grad students in the Transformation Council.
In 2015 students at the University of Cape Town demanded the removal of the Cecil Rhodes statue and for the end of institutional racism
The protests, the black power slogans and the call for Africanization, reminded Rehad of the 1970s political climate.
At Wits University, the Student Representative Council practically closed the school doors in response to the university rating tuition.
Students across the country joined protests in the attempt to voice their opinions in the rising tuition fees.
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"Luister"
The documentary is about the lives of 32 students of color who attend Stellenbosch University in South Africa
One student explains how Stellenbosch University always sides with the white student never the student of color.
Another student shared his experience of seeing one of his girl friends being tapped on the head like she was a dog by a white male and he told them to stop treating her that way. The man didnt take the comment kindly and started to yell and fight with him.
Stellenbosch University is more concerned with answering the press rather than their students who are racially attacked.
A colored student shares how his white friend doesnt want to be seen hanging out with him by other groups simply due to the color of his skin.
White Africans are free to be drunk and loud but once a black person becomes rowdy people tell them to stop acting that way.
Universities have the power to instill dangerous ideologies into its students.
Stellenbosch has attempted to create a multilingual learning environment by teaching both English and Afrikaans.
Many students struggle with translation which leads students to falling behind in class and eventually failing.
They offer translation devices but the lectures voice overrides the translators voice so it makes it impossible to hear. The devices are also delayed and the translations are far from perfect.
Students fought for a more inclusive language policy but the university denied to change the policy.
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One student expresses how he feels like an outsider at the university.
Students of color at Stellenbosch constantly have to validate and prove themselves to others.
"South African students protest over use of Afrikaans"
In 2015, hundreds of students at Stellenbosch University protested against Afrikaans being the favored language at the school.
The protesters stated the language promotes racism
Many South Africans view the Afrikaans as the language of the oppressors during the apartheid.
The university's management team has been summoned to appear before the parliament to explain the situation.
Afrikaans was also used as the language of instruction at Stellenbosch University which used to be exclusively white.
Afrikaans and English as supposed to be used equally but professors heavily favor Afrikaans
A current socio-political issue that relates to this idea is students who are not native to the US might not understand our language. Instead of being put into a setting where they can learn our language they are thrown into a classroom in all English where they struggle to understand any of the content.
Tania Page is the author of the article who is a reporter for Al Jazeera in Stellenbosch, South Africa.