The Indian has journeyed from pain to progress

FAKE or not, the memo that went viral proposing a reduced quota of Indians who can gain admission to the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine in Durban, is distressing for its perpetuation of racism.

- YOGIN DEVAN

In an authentic-looking missive, some race-obsessed organisation or individual pushed for an increase in the allocation for coloured applicants from the current 9% to a minimum of 15%, and for the allocation for Indian applicants to be dropped from 19% to 13%.

This change, the document states, is to ensure that students from underprivileged backgrounds - especially rural and township schools - have better access to medical education. The university has distanced itself from the document, claiming it is false and is intended to "inflame emotions and engage in race-baiting for narrow agendas”. Yeah, right, we like to believe UKZN because Indians are too often seen as easy targets when racial tension is deliberately provoked.

Here think of the 2021 Phoenix violence where Indians have been portrayed in some narratives as aggressors or gatekeepers. If it is true that our coloured brothers and sisters must be given more chances to become doctors, I can already see in my mind’s eye the long lines of Indians outside hair salons in Chatsworth and Phoenix wanting curl-enhancing products to bypass the quota restrictions and enter medical school as coloureds.

Remember the pencil test from the days of apartheid? A pencil was inserted into a person’s hair. If it fell out easily, the person was deemed to have “European” hair and could be classified as white. If it stuck, the person was considered to have “African” hair texture and was classified as black or coloured.