Do you know what is happening less than 10,000 kilometres away? Five-year olds are being blown to bits. Less than 4,000 kilometres away, we have child soldiers being forced into war, crime and drugs. The list of all the evil stuff going on in the world is, sadly, quite long.

Some of you may have seen Pretoria Girls High School on the news recently, where black girls have been singled out and even punished, because of the way their hair is being worn.

Then, why, oh why, do you make a scene about a young girl and the way she decides to wear her hair? There are REAL problems in the world, don’t make an awesome afro one of them. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Afros should be celebrated. The way a white girl could have her hair up in a glam pony tail and one could say “oh wow, what great hair”, a black girl’s hair should be reacted to in the same way. Who are you to determine that simply because it does not appeal to you, it is against the rules? To deem it “too exotic” is just off the charts unbelievable. Have you looked up the word exotic? It could be related to being different, being strange. This is not in line with our rainbow nation, and it should be considered GREAT or AWESOME but not DIFFERENT. You can’t run your school in a way that is pro-white. It doesn’t matter what kind of hair you have – your perception of acceptable is not necessarily THE perception and to think that it is, is arrogant and antagonistic. From further media reports, it seems the afro fight is the tip of a racist iceberg that is Pretoria Girls High School.

As a South African, I have become somewhat numb to all the hideous racism still seated in our country, isn’t it terrible how one can get so used to a thing, that it almost becomes normal? But this story really resonated with me. High school is tough, and the thought of these girls going through puberty (so fun, said no one ever) and dealing with the pressures of high school AND having to deal with being treated differently because of the colour of her skin, is just too much. This has to end!

It is hard to imagine a free South Africa, free of racism. With a country with as much racial history as ours, it will be a long time before we are free of those bonds. But one would hope, 20+ years on that it would be abating, not increasing. Tolerance from all people, across the board is what we need to heal.

Bottom line: live and let live. How someone wears the hair should be the least of our worries.

Written by Shelley Bolle

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