Why IS Miss South Africa 2012 White? Actually, Why Not?

I read an article today called: "Why is Miss South Africa White?". Even though I am a White South African, I found I was also surprised to read that Miss South Africa is White. Oh no, I thought, how many White contestants were there, and I hope there were many Black contestants too?! You will see the comments of the article state the same surprise as an outcry against a White person winning a beauty contest to represent an African country.

Then I wondered the following about this beauty contest, which is purely hypothetical, as I don't know who entered Miss South Africa: if Miss South Africa has 7 Black contestants, 1 Indian contestant, 1 Coloured contestant, 1 Chinese contestant, and 1 White contestant, and all are South African citizens, must one of the Black contestants win? Why should I think this should be so? And what if the Indian person or the Coloured person or the Chinese person had won instead of a Black person or a White person? (though for BEE purposes (1), these people are classed as Black) Would there still be an outcry? Why are we dividing contestants in a beauty competition into race groups? If a Black person should win, then are the other contestants token entries only who are wasting their time trying? Why must the winner of any beauty contest be chosen on the basis of her colour?




The outcry here is probably because of South Africa's apartheid past, and, of course, perception of how things should be. South Africa has a population of about 40 million Black people, about 3 million White people, about 3 million Coloured people who have mixed race ancestry but now form a distinct cultural group, about one and a half million Indian people, and many other types of people (and I may have some figures slightly wrong). There is much emphasis in South Africa at the moment to ensure the demographics of the country are now correctly represented, to change past societal contribution imbalances due to apartheid and I fully support mechanisms to obliterate racism and stereotyping in the country. At the same time, sometimes the mechanisms put into place to right past imbalances towards certain groups of people, can ensure discrimination happens towards different groups of people, and this should be guarded against. This principle applies throughout the world.

Imagine if we were to live in this world purely along majority race lines? This would mean we would need to see why winners from many different countries with a White majority have been non-White (there have been quite a few), and why the President of America is neither White nor Hispanic. Imagine telling these countries to make sure they remove these individuals to make sure the majority race group of the country is represented! I use these examples only to highlight my point, and I am quite satisfied that the individuals I have mentioned are in their respective positions. The President of America is Barack Obama, chosen for his leadership abilities and charisma, and not as a representative of a race group!

The world is a global village. When you walk down your own street, how many different types of people do you see around you? Open your eyes, and you may be very surprised at what you see! Each country now has many types of people living there, many races and cultures. Africa does not have only Black people, and South Africa, for example, is called the Rainbow Nation for a reason, just as America does not have only White people. There have been many past historical wrongs, but this cannot be changed now, and the demographics of the countries of the world have been changing at an astounding rate, especially in recent years, and demographics will continue changing. New majorities will come and go in cycles of time.

Why can't we see people as individuals, who have names, and not merely as members of race or cultural groups? The world's survival depends on this.

Note: in South Africa, it is acceptable to call people Black or White or Coloured etc., which might not be the case in other parts of the world, and if I cause offense due to the use of these terms then I do apologise.

(1) There is an initiative called Black Economic Empowerment in South Africa, BEE, which is a government term

Link to related blog article: Is There Such a Thing as Reverse Racism?