Don't laugh. Time may not be racist, but it's conceptually less able to be grasped for blacks than for other ice people.

Gedaliah Braun talks about this in his book of compiled short essays during his time living in Africa. I highly recommend reading it.

Blacks and Time: My thinking about this began in 1998. As I pulled into my garage (behind my apartment building), several Francophone Africans drove up and stopped right in front of my garage. 'Hey', I said, 'you can't park here!' Perfectly friendly and respectful, they asked 'Oh, are you leaving [now]?' 'No', I said, 'but' (stating what one would think was the utterly obvious) 'I might later.' 'Park over there' - and they did.

The point is, their thinking seemed to encompass only the here and now: if you're leaving [now], we understand; but otherwise, what's the problem? I had further such encounters and the key question was always 'Are you leaving [now]?'

Future, Time and Space All the Same Word in Zulu: The future doesn't exist; it will exist but doesn't exist now. People who have difficulty in thinking of things which do not exist, will ipso facto have difficulty thinking of the future. It appears that the Zulu entry for future - isikhati - is the same word as the word for time, as well as the word for space. In other words, none of these concepts exist in Zulu thought, period. It also appears that there is no word for the past - meaning, the time preceding the present. This should not be surprising since the past no longer exists, just as the future does not yet exist. Hence, people who have difficulty in thinking of things which do not exist will have difficulty in thinking of the past as well as the future. This has an obvious bearing on things like gratitude and loyalty - both of which are noticeably uncommon in blacks.

The reader may wonder why it took me more than twenty years to notice these things. Briefly, I think it is because our assumptions about time are so bed-rock that we're not even aware of having them and so are equally unaware that anyone might not have them. Consequently this possibility is simply not on our radar - and so of course we don't see it even when it stares us in the face.

Where Blacks Do Pay Attention To Time: Interestingly, there are areas where blacks do notice time. They see crops planted, growing and then harvested; they see children born, grow old and die; and, they plan for their funerals, because death is a certainty, while ill health is only a risk. (The Zulu entries for 'risk' mean 'danger' and 'a slippery surface'.) Furthermore, death is concrete and observable. In short, blacks tend to be aware of time when it is manifested in concrete, observable objects and events.

So technically what she's saying is: the white concept of time, or time in terms of the past, present and future are racist because they don't cater to blacks. That's bad if, for your people, you've only been experiencing this kind of thing for the blink of an eye relatively speaking, because time wasn't much of a concept (in Xhosa or Zulu). You'll just have a lot of people that are either mal-adapted, or have a very difficult time with planning and delay of gratification.

Don't laugh. Time may not be racist, but it's conceptually less relevant as an actual thing than

Gedaliah Braun talks about this in his book of compiled short essays during his time living in Africa. I highly recommend reading it.

Blacks and Time: My thinking about this began in 1998. As I pulled into my garage (behind my apartment building), several Francophone Africans drove up and stopped right in front of my garage. 'Hey', I said, 'you can't park here!' Perfectly friendly and respectful, they asked 'Oh, are you leaving [now]?' 'No', I said, 'but' (stating what one would think was the utterly obvious) 'I might later.' 'Park over there' - and they did.

The point is, their thinking seemed to encompass only the here and now: if you're leaving [now], we understand; but otherwise, what's the problem? I had further such encounters and the key question was always 'Are you leaving [now]?'

Future, Time and Space All the Same Word in Zulu: The future doesn't exist; it will exist but doesn't exist now. People who have difficulty in thinking of things which do not exist, will ipso facto have difficulty thinking of the future. It appears that the Zulu entry for future - isikhati - is the same word as the word for time, as well as the word for space. In other words, none of these concepts exist in Zulu thought, period. It also appears that there is no word for the past - meaning, the time preceding the present. This should not be surprising since the past no longer exists, just as the future does not yet exist. Hence, people who have difficulty in thinking of things which do not exist will have difficulty in thinking of the past as well as the future. This has an obvious bearing on things like gratitude and loyalty - both of which are noticeably uncommon in blacks.

The reader may wonder why it took me more than twenty years to notice these things. Briefly, I think it is because our assumptions about time are so bed-rock that we're not even aware of having them and so are equally unaware that anyone might not have them. Consequently this possibility is simply not on our radar - and so of course we don't see it even when it stares us in the face.

Where Blacks Do Pay Attention To Time: Interestingly, there are areas where blacks do notice time. They see crops planted, growing and then harvested; they see children born, grow old and die; and, they plan for their funerals, because death is a certainty, while ill health is only a risk. (The Zulu entries for 'risk' mean 'danger' and 'a slippery surface'.) Furthermore, death is concrete and observable. In short, blacks tend to be aware of time when it is manifested in concrete, observable objects and events.

So technically what she's saying is: the white concept of time, or time in terms of the past, present and future are racist because they don't cater to blacks. That's bad if, for your people, you've only been experiencing this kind of thing for the blink of an eye relatively speaking, because time wasn't much of a concept (in Xhosa or Zulu). You'll just have a lot of people that are either mal-adapted, or have a very difficult time with planning and delay of gratification.

Don't laugh. Time may not be racist, but it's conceptually less relevant as an actual thing than

Gedaliah Braun talks about this in his book of compiled short essays during his time living in Africa. I highly recommend reading it.

Blacks and Time: My thinking about this began in 1998. As I pulled into my garage (behind my apartment building), several Francophone Africans drove up and stopped right in front of my garage. 'Hey', I said, 'you can't park here!' Perfectly friendly and respectful, they asked 'Oh, are you leaving [now]?' 'No', I said, 'but' (stating what one would think was the utterly obvious) 'I might later.' 'Park over there' - and they did.

The point is, their thinking seemed to encompass only the here and now: if you're leaving [now], we understand; but otherwise, what's the problem? I had further such encounters and the key question was always 'Are you leaving [now]?'

Future, Time and Space All the Same Word in Zulu: The future doesn't exist; it will exist but doesn't exist now. People who have difficulty in thinking of things which do not exist, will ipso facto have difficulty thinking of the future. It appears that the Zulu entry for future - isikhati - is the same word as the word for time, as well as the word for space. In other words, none of these concepts exist in Zulu thought, period. It also appears that there is no word for the past - meaning, the time preceding the present. This should not be surprising since the past no longer exists, just as the future does not yet exist. Hence, people who have difficulty in thinking of things which do not exist will have difficulty in thinking of the past as well as the future. This has an obvious bearing on things like gratitude and loyalty - both of which are noticeably uncommon in blacks.

The reader may wonder why it took me more than twenty years to notice these things. Briefly, I think it is because our assumptions about time are so bed-rock that we're not even aware of having them and so are equally unaware that anyone might not have them. Consequently this possibility is simply not on our radar - and so of course we don't see it even when it stares us in the face.

Where Blacks Do Pay Attention To Time: Interestingly, there are areas where blacks do notice time. They see crops planted, growing and then harvested; they see children born, grow old and die; and, they plan for their funerals, because death is a certainty, while ill health is only a risk. (The Zulu entries for 'risk' mean 'danger' and 'a slippery surface'.) Furthermore, death is concrete and observable. In short, blacks tend to be aware of time when it is manifested in concrete, observable objects and events.