Charles Ash, founder of Bruinou.com, contends that celebrating one’s Coloured identity does not go against Black Consciousness – it is in fact an embodiment of it.
Ash along with Aasia Fredericks, an Influencer and Social Media Manager from Cape Town who is also a member of Bruinou.com were among those interviewd by Mohammed Jameel Abdulla of The Daily Vox following all the controversy of the #ColouredExcellence hashtag celebrating Wayde van Niekerk's Olympic Gold Medal win and his new World Record set in the Mens 400m race.
“I identify as socially coloured, because that is the way that I’ve been undeniably socialised, but politically black because I subscribe to Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness ideology. But my coloured identity is not mutually exclusive to my black identity – I can bear both identities,” said Ash.
The contention here is that some seem to think accepting “Biko Blackness” as a political identity means forgoing all other aspects of our social and cultural ties – basically amounting to erasure of ethnic identity. Not only is this an incorrect understanding of Black Consciousness, it’s also hypocritical.
Aasia Fredericks echoed the importance of representation.
“You can say #BlackLivesMatter but representation matters for all – whether you’re black or whether you’re coloured. It’s important for people to see people that they can aspire to and relate to. That does more for them than, ‘Wayde van Niekerk’s victory for one is a victory for all’ ,” said Fredericks.
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