Nontombi Naomi Tutu continues the legacy of her father Desmond Tutu, first black African Archbishop of Capetown, South Africa, and notable activist in the 1980s who fought against apartheid - the system of racial segregation in South Africa.
Tutu, who was born in South Africa, said she witnessed not only the segregation of whites and blacks but also of different classes of Africans, which has motivated her to dedicate her life to the improvement of race relations.
Tutu, the Black History Month committee's keynote speaker, spoke to a crowd of less than 40 about seeking a racial common ground Wednesday night at the Tribute to Black History event in the Cotillion Ballroom of the Union.
Curtis Parker, coordinator for the Office of Multicultural Affairs, said the organization chose Tutu because she provided a different perspective to African Americans because her struggles as an African in South Africa were different than the struggles of blacks in the United States.
Tutu spoke about her experiences growing up in apartheid.
Apartheid, which means "apartness" in Afrikaans, was a system of racial segregation in South Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s.
Tutu said under apartheid the government classified people into whites, Asians, "coloureds" - who were people with mixed African and European backgrounds - and Africans, who considered themselves the original people of Africa.
She said the greatest racial conflict came from coloureds and Africans because of stereotypes and lack of communication between the two groups.
She said both Africans and coloureds were inherently ashamed of their African heritage.
Tutu said at African weddings, they commonly sang a song that said, "Come out, come out, [the bride] looks like a coloured girl."
"So for an African girl to be beautiful, since she couldn't be white, the closer she got to white was the measure of beautiful," Tutu said.
She said coloured people would be proud of their European ancestry but ashamed of their African ancestry.
Tutu said Africans were proud of being the original people of Africa but had been "harmed by the wounds of racism."
"We need to seek a common ground," Tutu said. "We have to respect ourselves and those who we view as other."
She said in the United States, grade schools do not effectively teach the history of slavery to students which contributes to people's lack of understanding.
"When we talk about reaching a common ground, we are talking about accepting and respecting each other," Tutu said. "You can't accept and respect what you don't know, and you can't accept and respect yourself if you don't know your own history."
Tutu said today racism is "internalized, learned and unaware."
Tutu said she used to work in a restaurant where she discovered that blacks are less likely to tip their servers. She said years later she went to a restaurant where she watched white customers receive better service than she did from a black hostess.
"She is insulting us, but she is insulting herself too," Tutu said. "You can not have self-respect if you cannot respect others [of your own race]."
Tutu said if people want to find a common ground, they have to be willing to communicate with others different than them.
"We have to be brave enough to tell the difficult stories and also be brave enough to hear the difficult stories of others," Tutu said.
Contact Rebekah Allen at rallen@lsureveille.com
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