EDITORIAL: Victim mentality among blacks

The persistent victim attitude of black Namibians, which is understandably founded in historical racial atrocities, is not assisting us in fully recovering from that dark period of our history.

Worse still, this internalised feeling of inferiority has only helped black communities develop a weak attitude that leads to sloth, entitlement and a failure to realise our full potential.

While it is true that black people need 'special privileges' in order to remedy historical injustices, we cannot allow these privileges to define who we are as a community.

We have transcended from a position of racial victimhood to that of mental victimhood. We cannot let our nation's racist past determine who we are. To allow the horses that constitute our soul go free, we must crawl out from behind that rock.

What so many of us have evolved into is horrible, awful, humiliating, sad and pitiful. It is understandable why the rest of the world regards us with such contempt.

While the past sins of the white man remain indelible, he is not responsible for all that occurs in our homes and communities today. Negativity, self-doubt, or appealing to the past to get compassion from the present cannot be the foundation of any successful nation.

Many in our midst have become soft beggars. Even for public tenders, they highlight – in pitch black – the colour of their skin because this has become the passage to the feasting table.