Editing Steve Biko (section)

===Black Consciousness and empowerment===
Biko rejected the apartheid government's division of South Africa's population into "whites" and "non-whites", a distinction that was marked on signs and buildings throughout the country.{{sfn|Epstein|2018|p=100}} Building on Fanon's work, Biko regarded "non-white" as a negative category, defining people in terms of an absence of whiteness. In response, Biko replaced "non-white" with the category "black", which he regarded as being neither derivative nor negative.{{sfn|Epstein|2018|p=108}} He defined blackness as a "mental attitude" rather than a "matter of pigmentation", referring to "blacks" as "those who are by law or tradition politically, economically and socially discriminated against as a group in the South African society" and who identify "themselves as a unit in the struggle towards the realization of their aspirations".{{sfn|Kamola|2015|p=66}} In this way, he and the Black Consciousness Movement used "black" in reference not only to Bantu-speaking Africans but also to Coloureds and Indians,{{sfn|Mangcu|2014|pp=43–44}} who together made up almost 90% of South Africa's population in the 1970s.{{sfn|Hill|2015|p=xviii}} Biko was not a Marxist and believed that it was oppression based on race, rather than class, which would be the main political motivation for change in South Africa.{{sfn|Wilson|2012|p=16}} He argued that those on the "white left" often promoted a class-based analysis as a "defence mechanism... primarily because they want to detach us from anything relating to race. In case it has a rebound effect on them because they are white".{{sfn|Macqueen|2014|pp=515–516}}

{{Quote box
| quote = Black Consciousness directs itself to the black man and to his situation, and the black man is subjected to two forces in this country. He is first of all oppressed by an external world through institutionalised machinery and through laws that restrict him from doing certain things, through heavy work conditions, through poor pay, through difficult living conditions, through poor education, these are all external to him. Secondly, and this we regard as the most important, the black man in himself has developed a certain state of alienation, he rejects himself precisely because he attaches the meaning white to all that is good, in other words he equates good with white. This arises out of his living and it arises out of his development from childhood.
| source=Steve Biko{{sfn|Woods|1978|p=124}}
| align = left
| width = 25em
}}

Biko saw white racism in South Africa as the totality of the white power structure.{{sfn|Mangcu|2014|p=278}} He argued that under apartheid, white people not only participated in the oppression of black people but were also the main voices in opposition to that oppression.{{sfn|Ahluwalia|Zegeye|2001|p=460}} He thus argued that in dominating both the apartheid system and the anti-apartheid movement, white people totally controlled the political arena, leaving black people marginalised.{{sfn|Ahluwalia|Zegeye|2001|p=460}} He believed white people were able to dominate the anti-apartheid movement because of their access to resources, education, and privilege. He nevertheless thought that white South Africans were poorly suited to this role because they had not personally experienced the oppression that their black counterparts faced.{{sfn|Kamola|2015|p=64}}

Biko and his comrades regarded multi-racial anti-apartheid groups as unwittingly replicating the structure of apartheid because they contained whites in dominant positions of control.{{sfn|Kamola|2015|p=66}} For this reason, Biko and the others did not participate in these multi-racial organisations.{{sfn|Ahluwalia|Zegeye|2001|p=460}} Instead, they called for an anti-apartheid programme that was controlled by black people.{{sfn|Ahluwalia|Zegeye|2001|p=460}} Although he called on sympathetic whites to reject any concept that they themselves could be spokespeople for the black majority, Biko nevertheless believed that they had a place in the anti-apartheid struggle, asking them to focus their efforts on convincing the wider white community on the inevitability of apartheid's fall.{{sfn|Kamola|2015|p=65}} Biko clarified his position to Woods: "I don't reject liberalism as such or white liberals as such. I reject only the concept that black liberation can be achieved through the leadership of white liberals."{{sfn|Woods|1978|p=54}} He added that "the [white] liberal is no enemy, he's a friend&nbsp;– but for the moment he holds us back, offering a formula too gentle, too inadequate for our struggle".{{sfn|Woods|1978|p=55}}

Biko's approach to activism focused on psychological empowerment,{{sfn|Mangcu|2014|p=272}} and both he and the BCM saw their main purpose as combating the feeling of inferiority that most black South Africans experienced.{{sfn|Ahluwalia|Zegeye|2001|p=460}} Biko expressed dismay at how "the black man has become a shell, a shadow of man&nbsp;... bearing the yoke of oppression with sheepish timidity",{{sfn|Wilson|2012|p=14}} and stated that "the most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed".{{sfn|Wilson|2012|p=14}} He believed that blacks needed to affirm their own humanity by overcoming their fears and believing themselves worthy of freedom and its attendant responsibilities.{{sfn|Mangcu|2014|p=278}} He defined Black Consciousness as "an inward-looking process" that would "infuse people with pride and dignity".{{sfn|Wilson|2012|p=14}} To promote this, the BCM adopted the slogan "Black is Beautiful".{{sfn|Hill|2015|p=xviii}}

One of the ways that Biko and the BCM sought to achieve psychological empowerment was through community development.{{sfn|Hadfield|2010|p=80}} Community projects were seen not only as a way to alleviate poverty in black communities but also as a means of transforming society psychologically, culturally, and economically.{{sfn|Hadfield|2010|p=81}} They would also help students to learn about the "daily struggles" of ordinary black people and to spread Black Consciousness ideas among the population.{{sfn|Hadfield|2010|p=81}} Among the projects that SASO set its members to conduct in the holidays were repairs to schools, house-building, and instructions on financial management and agricultural techniques.{{sfn|Hadfield|2010|p=82}} Healthcare was also a priority, with SASO members focusing on primary and preventative care.{{sfn|Hadfield|2010|p=83}}