University. In terms of the academic context, the language policy of Afrikaans being the main mode of communication is perhaps the biggest driving force to exclusion as it dictates a student’s overall university experience. Currently, the University has the 50/50 language policy where lectures are required to teach in both English or Afrikaans sometimes, with the help of a translator. However, this can prove to be a challenge sometimes especially when Afrikaans lectures and students get comfortable speaking their mother tongue. Below, three participants recall events where they felt excluded in class because they did not understand the language:
…Our class was very small so, we would sit in a round table and then have a discussion
and we’d have first language Afrikaans speakers speak Afrikaans because that’s what they prefer to speak that, and it was annoying and frustrating. [Mpho]
My History …lecturer, he often just switches [between English and Afrikaans] Sometimes, he’ll say a joke in Afrikaans which already, even if it’s a joke, it’s already excluded a lot of us that don’t speak Afrikaans. [Samantha]
51
…It happens a lot where Afrikaans speaking students speak Afrikaans ask things in
Afrikaans in class and they are responded to in Afrikaans and then you didn’t even get the question you don’t know what the response is like and what was it about and how it could help you that happens a lot. [Lutha]
In terms of work opportunities, some participants work for the University as mentors or are required to do field work for their required degree, but shared examples where they often felt like White individuals in seniority positions deny them further growth due to their skin colour but offer these opportunities to White students. For example, she describes being excluded from earning more money during field work for her postgraduate course:
Miss Anna is our lecturer but she…I didn’t experience any subtle racism with her in class but like experienced it when she was doing field work with us and then like field work they were paying me R70 per hour so that’s a lot. So, we found that she was giving more of the White kids the longer shifts…the night shifts that pays more…
Thando describes a similar scenario where it was ostensibly clear how Black students are perceived even though they were on par with White students. In her interview, she describes being instructed to do work during her mentorship services that was more laborious while White mentors, some who were also only newly employed and expected to do this job, were given easier tasks:
…during that time [orientation programme] a lot of things like assignments and things that we had to do were given the most – like our head mentor, she would assign the Black people to do the labour things where you had to like to pick up stuff or cleaning stuff... And thing
[s] that didn’t require much labour, she would give it to the White people or she wouldn’t
even give them anything to do. So, I didn’t understand that and I was like, “Why are you telling me to do this? But you didn’t tell, even second years' com? Like second years' com, is there to do these things but you’re telling me as a mentor to pick up rubbish?
The hidden message communicated to Thando and Ayanda is that they, as Black
individuals, are half as worthy for better work opportunities than their White counterparts with the same or different level of experience.
In terms of the social context, participants reported that the University and the town’s attachment to Afrikaans acted as a weapon to execute their sense of segregation from the University culture. Most of the participants spoke about how White Afrikaans individuals perpetuate linguistic
52 discrimination by their reluctance to speak English even in spaces where Afrikaans is deemed unnecessary. Smiley stated that he often encounters problems with the group of first year students he mentors:
I can tell now with the mentors that I’m working with that I’m supposed to lead right now,
the majority of them speak Afrikaans. Like, we’d be having a conversation right now and then as soon as one person says something in Afrikaans like then [they] go change their language to Afrikaans and then they exclude some of us…and I’m like “…can we speak English?” like some of them took offence to that. It was like, “Oh wait, why are you making it seem like we can’t speak our language?” I’m like, “No, I love your language, that’s great but like we don’t want to exclude anyone. Like English, everyone knows English”.
The message communicated to Smiley, by the White-Afrikaans students purposefully speaking Afrikaans even when told that they are alienating other students from the narrative, is that they do not respect his authority and are not prepared to let go of their linguistic superiority for an outsider. Other students mirrored Smiley’s narrative and shared their experiences during meetings in their residence or mentorship programme where Afrikaans students purposefully dismiss the existence of other linguistic bodies:
So, my mentor was very Afrikaans and she tried to speak English and I’d listen. The minute she speaks Afrikaans I’d go on my phone and then she gets upset “why you going on your phone?” and I’m like “I can’t hear you what’s the point of me not going on my phone if you not going to speak the language I understand?” [Ayanda]
We have this thing highlight, lowlight - you’ll tell them about what your highlight and your lowlight of the week. So, I’ll come to the Section Meeting excited. But, the entire meeting, they’ll come in a circle and the whole circle will speak Afrikaans and I wouldn’t know what they are saying. [Samantha]
In house meetings they [students] speak Afrikaans, or they’d ask questions in Afrikaans or answer in Afrikaans and that excludes people from the story. [Tevin]
In the below extracts, some students also describe how they have been alienated from taking part in social-cultural activities as a result of Afrikaans being the prerequisite to partake and enjoy these activities:
53
I joined the Drama Society and when I went to the Drama Society, the lady just spoke in Afrikaans and I told her that I don’t understand Afrikaans and everyone knew Afrikaans except for me. So, I told her I don’t understand Afrikaans and she said she can’t speak English very well. But, I was just like “I’m not going back”. [Thando]
I’m very big on drama and I want to direct something this year. But, I can’t… like I went to the Toneelvees [Public Afrikaans Arts event] last year and a lot of the plays were in
Afrikaans, that also excludes me cos I’m interested. These are spaces that I want to be in, but you’ve [Afrikaans individuals] excluded me by speaking something that I can’t understand. [Samantha]
The message interpreted by students in these stories of exclusion is that Afrikaans speaking individuals will not go the extra mile to accommodate students who do not speak their language, nor do they think it is necessary. These encounters exclude SOC from partaking in socio-cultural activities on campus, being aware of important updates during house meetings or increasing their social circles due to not being included in discussions
4.3.4. Effects of hidden racism. One of the objectives of this study was to find out the