I am a 29 year old white woman, I work for an Advertising Agency, I stay in Lonehill, Northern Johannesburg and I have a pretty good life. But one thing I don’t have is safety, well at least according to the newspapers and television news stations. The newspapers and television news shows only talk about crime in South Africa as the Blacks or Coloured people robbing, car jacking, raping or killing White people. Last week I was watching Al Jezzerra English (Channel 225 on DStv) and there was a story about crime in South Africa. Basically it was about a young White woman who was shot and subsequently paralysed during a robbery at her house. The story, just many other crime stories on shows like M-Net’s Carte Blanche was about White people being the victims and people of colour being the perpetrators. They never say it but in the newspapers, the criminals are almost always Black or Coloured.  Why is this? Are Whites the only victims of crime? I think not, last December, legendary Reggae artist Lucky Dube was shot in a car jacking. There was some up roar about crime in South Africa but not as much as when it’s a White person.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m White and feel scared when I’m walking in my neighbourhood and I see a group of Black men walking around but they are just construction workers. My fear maybe based on the fact that I’m always reminded that most criminals in South Africa are people of colour, Black males and that is true. But that maybe due to the fact that there are more Black people in South Africa, so on average they would commit more crimes but I don’t think they are just after White people only. There is crime every where, people are being robbed, raped and murdered in townships too. So why don’t they get much media attention? Maybe because us White people own most of the media, maybe we feel like the hunted, the White people hunted by the natives. This is just like when my ancestors arrived in Africa, the natives were always the enemy. Nothing has changed even with a Black majority government; we are still at war with Black people.

I’m tired of being always made to feel like a victim in South Africa. I am a citizen just like any other South African and crime is something against every South African, it has nothing to do with the colour of a person’s skin. Unfortunately, just like anything in South Africa, race will always be an issue and will always define the way we think. I don’t like it, it’s like I’m a prisoner in my own skin, I can’t be free because I’m the only race under attack from every one else. It makes me angry. Maybe I maybe a White Liberal but I think this has nothing to do with my politics, everyone is suffering from crime, not only White people and we White people in the media should recognise that crime is a national, multiracial problem. If the media continues to divide us, we will always be at war, even though we claim to be in a free democracy.

Crime has no colour!

By F S-W