Imagine being a Professor and a Top Scientist with a PhD in Physics and a journalist refers to you on a first name basis like you are mates. I would fight everyone. Grad school is not easy. I’m not an academic snob but people toil years for these titles. It’s Prof to you eNCA! https://twitter.com/eNCA/status/1276500958021914624

I might also be projecting because some people don’t care for titles, but in my experience it’s usually white professors who don’t care for them. But then again, they have generations of family members in academia who are professors. For most first generation graduates it matters

It was confusing for me in first year of varsity when my white mathematics professor who was also very old insisted on being addressed on a first name basis: Ian. The dynamics of respect for older folk as well as learnered people ingrained in me from young struggled with this

I also know of Professor Maano Ramutsindela who is the first black dean of science, he taught me in first year and nothing in me is capable of calling him “Maano”, firstly he’s way older than me but the man worked through poverty and a racist system to obtain his PhD. Respect.

I got academically excluded from UCT in my first year because I failed dismally, it took so much out of me to dust myself off and pick up the pieces to get degree cum laude at UCT after struggling through major depression etc although I did learn that my worthiness is not-

-attached to academic performance or titles, I am also not gonna downplay how much of a big deal it is for me to crawl from being the first person in my family to go to varsity even though I’m the last born. When I study further it’s to break generational curses and be a pioneer

I’m a chilled guy (or so I think) but imagine after studying for matric exams in a flooded shack, to bouncing back from academic exclusion & working hard in exclusionary spaces for my PhD only to have Suzan at eNCA call me Pabs in an article like I picked up my PhD on the street

It matters for ME that Professor Zeblon Vilakazi is addressed by his titles because he is holding space for little black children who still grow up in conditions of squalor with the world feeding them the message that they are not good enough, that they are not capable.

Growing up and existing in a world that dubs you as inferior is a very painful experience and unlearning the bullshit is a lifelong project. There’s also a tendency to undermine black people in this country. The media is one of the tools of white supremacy, it is insidious

Anyway, again this wasn’t meant to be a thread but I felt it necessary to explain where I’m coming from. Of course if Professor Zeblon insists on being called by his name with no titles, then please do that by any means but the rule of thumb is to respect and title people

There is also a gendered lense which I don’t have time to unpack but women are disrespected as well but I am opting to do the racial analysis. This phenomenon is seen in many professions including medicine where black doctors are usually questioned and called nurses or cleaners

Lastly I have been fortunate to study overseas and travel for conferences, colloquiums etc in countries such as the US and UK and the dynamics there were different in my experience. We were drinking beer and playing pool with profs whereas in SA it’s hard to break those barriers

Prof Vilakazi was Born in Katlehong, a township located on the East Rand, obtained his PhD from Wits in 1998. He was one of the first students from Africa to conduct PhD research at the European Centre for Nuclear Research in Geneva, Switzerland. Bathong, a rose from concrete