My Man From Mars

I would like to introduce a very important friend I met many years ago when I was mentored by a truly great teacher, Professor Richard Christie. He is "M"; which is short for "Martian', as he is from the planet Mars. He must not be confused with "M" of James Bond vintage.

We all know that Martians have those big eyes. So what is good about him is that when an issue is posed he will see it for exactly what it is, unencumbered, unadorned by packaging, steeped in any kind of bias and slant on account of local conditioning.

Some call it "applying the objective test". I think it is much more than that. Objectivity is determined by a host of subjective factors including pre-conditioning.

M is not pre-conditioned. He just sees things for what they are. Very useful I think.

For instance he can see me for exactly what I am - a brown human being, not white, not black - but a nice shade of brown!

He is quite shocked that in South Africa, and other parts of the world it must be said, I am to be regarded as a Black person and, worst still, condemned for not accepting such labeling.

Sorry - I have mis-stated the South African position. Here I can accept that I am a brown person - I am free to do that - but, and man it is a serious but, I will be denied employment and Government contracts unless I prove that I am Black!

"But", he asks ruefully, "did you guys not get rid of all this obsession with colour and ethnicity when you dumped apartheid? Was that not central to the culture of the oppressor?
In any case, you are 50% White. Is that now seen as an inconvenient truth that is of no value?"

"Hmnnnnnn ..-"  now what to say? ... time to open the packaging ... very nice too ... proudly labelled Affirmative Action and Black Economic Empowerment.