7.2 The interconnectedness of race and gender: White men dominate in the business sector
7.2.5 The ‘needy’ discourse
It is of concern that in all four textbooks the images used to represent social assistance and awareness for poverty reduction are of African children and women. African women and children are represented as needy of financial assistance and awareness of their plight, in order to lead a more prosperous life (Table 7.1). Assistance is given by corporate companies and the private sector. The racial and gendered representation of the social actors who make up the private sector is absent.
Table 7.1: Images of African children and women used to represent social assistance and awareness for poverty reduction
The flower-valley community project creates more jobs. The scheme has employed 80 women. The community- based project also aims to educate local children and develop new skills for adults (Zimbabwe, p. 78)
From the text, the agent is unclear.
However, showing an African woman in the photo directs the reader to who the
‘employed women’ in the valley community project are. The inference made by ‘develop new skills’ implies that the women that are offered assistance have limited skills. There is also a notable silence or exclusion as to why these women and children in the communities are unskilled and uneducated.
Backgrounding of this aspect is significant since inclusion of why these women and children are unskilled and uneducated could negatively affect the message that the writers want to portray, which is their business contribution towards social responsibility.
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Businesses are affected by crime, violence, violence, riots and strikes and these stem directly from the large number of people living in poverty. It is therefore in the best interest that corporate responsibility of business uplift the community it operates in. (South Africa, p. 150).
The presupposition illuminated by the above is that poor people are violent and are criminals, although there is no factual proof of this.
The image highlights a few problems with race. Firstly, showing African children (both genders) as people responsible for criminal activities is stereotypical.
Confining violence and crime to only African people reinforces the stereotype that all African people are criminals. The identities of being poor, African and a criminal reinforce the idea that the identities of African people have negative connotations.
Images in the textbook could be more innovative in their representations of crime by addressing the painful, difficult, uncertain and disturbing aspects of the discourse and thus allowing discussion and understanding to come from different angles, thereby creating more than one identity position in relation to crime.
Government organizations use informative advertising to tell people about new regulations or increase awareness of personal health. (South Africa, p. 5)
In the above, the agent is missing. The people and producers of who constitute the Government are made to be the passive recipients. This seems a deliberate way of foregrounding the role of the Government in the prevention of AIDS.
The image portrays an African family (both genders) seeking counselling on the impact of AIDS. Using an African family to raise and discuss issues on AIDS represents stereotypes and stigmatisation around this issue.
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Exclusion of other race groups strengthens the stereotypes and stigmas about AIDS as a disease of African people.
Learners are therefore likely to view AIDS as an African problem and not as a country’s problem.
African males were also portrayed in low-paying, low-status occupations. They were represented as working class as compared to white males. White men were represented as having well-paying and prestigious occupations with good working conditions. They were categorised as middle and working class, as shown in Figure 7.6.
Figure 7.6: Occupations of African (left) and white (right) men, as depicted in the Zimbabwean textbook (p. 151)
The photograph reproduced on the left in Figure 7.6 (Zimbabwe, p. 151) depicts the occupations of African men. The environment that the workers perform their task in is informal, in an outside space. The photographs depict lifting, drilling and carrying of heavy objects during assembly of bus parts. The workers use dangerous tools and are exposed to adverse conditions, reflected by lack of safety gear and non-specialised equipment. The image is anchored by the following text: low levels of motivation and incentives lead to low
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achievement and performance. This infers that the workers are not motivated, which could be due to the poor working conditions or poor pay.
The photograph on the right in Figure 7.6 (Zimbabwe, p. 157) reflects a similar job specification; however, the working conditions are different. The workers are white men who are shown using protective working gear for their safety. Assembly of the car is done within a well-structured workshop. The workers also work under supervision. Anchored by the image is the following text: Tylers’ approach to management believes money is the only way to motivate staff … The inference is that the workers are well paid. The text is an example of a presupposition authoritatively asserting the notion of money as the only means of motivation, coming across as strong fact because of the absence of words suggesting modality or tentativeness. The writers could have used other words such as ‘thinks’, but the word ‘believes’
implies the absolute certainty in the above statement. However, on page 158, Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs is discussed, and he identifies other key factors of motivation besides money which promote worker satisfaction that many businesses are applying successfully.
The two images illuminate the distinction between the working conditions of the African and white workers: African workers are employed in conditions that are dangerous, low paid and not well regulated, and the white workers have good working conditions.
On page 141 of the Lesotho textbook, under the section ‘Role and relationship in the organisation’, the following statement was foregrounded: All business organisation need skilled people to run it. The section goes on to describe the roles of a director in a business. In a case study Matthias Bichsel (a white male, Figure 7.7) is described as a director of Projects and Technology at Royal Dutch Shell. Matthias is described as ‘competent and skilled’, and his occupation is one of high status and is well remunerated. Much of his work entails decision- making, delegation, appointing senior management to help run the organisation, devising, and implementing company qualities. Matthias is described as an integral part of the organisation.
His working conditions are good since it is an office setting.
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Figure 7.7: Matthias Bichsel, Director of Projects and Technology at Royal Dutch Shell On page 403 of the Lesotho textbook, a section entitled ‘Trade union to protect and improve wage and welfare of employees’ provides an informative case study on the role of unions in the prevention of exploitation in the mining sector. This case study is enhanced by a photo of African males in the mining sector (Figure 7.8).
Figure 7.8: African men working in the mining sector
The image shows a male miner forcefully drilling into the rock with a sledgehammer and drill.
The miner is exerting a lot of energy and strength in breaking the rocks. The working conditions
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require lots of standing, lifting, climbing and stooping in cramped quarters with tools that are dangerous. Anchored by the picture is the following statement:
Workers in mines are poorly paid and undertaken in appalling conditions. The trade union therefore help to fight and bring to workers increased wage and safety and other benefits for many poor and working-class families.
Although the social actor is omitted from the text, the image reflecting African men creates the biased assumption that African males are mineworkers and amongst the poorly paid and working class. The verb ‘appalling’ adds to the poor working conditions that miners face. The writers do very little to trouble this perception. In none of the four textbooks does an image reflect white persons or those of any other race as mineworkers. White males are presented in high-paying, high-status occupations, as in the case study of Matthias above (Lesotho, p. 141).