Two people who used to be Facebook Friends shared an article that, in my opinion, is a weak (not to mention poorly worded) and offensive attempt to trivialise the deep deep wounds that our past has (and the people in it have) inflicted on the people of South Africa. And here I too, must be careful, that in using the third person, I also may seek to distance myself, personally, from my own membership as an individual in the history of this country. This is a great and beautiful country, with wonderful and diverse people, but to this day, 20 years after the fall of that abhorrent system we white South Africans, whether we chose to or not, benefitted greatly from, vast numbers of South Africans still have a pitiably unfair shot at a decent life. So may I please make a plea - I dont want to read a whining complaint about how unfair things are for white people in South Africa. The fact is that today, 20 years after Tata Mandela took the podium outside the Union Buildings as newly elected president of South Africa, it can still be said of almost every single one of us: you never had it so good. It was not white people I saw crammed into makeshift cubicles in a warehouse in Doornfontien, over a forty families sharing two toilets. It is not white people I see in the crowded alleyways between makeshift shacks perched perilously on the banks of seasonal streams along the N2 in Cape Town, it was not white men that I met listlessly lounging in the crowded corridors of George Gogh hostel, five men sharing a room smaller than my horses stable, it is not white people I see standing in long lines at taxi ranks long after dark on cold winters nights, still hours away from their homes and loved ones. The uncomfortable and undeniable truth is that we, the vast majority of the white people of South Africa, benefitted from apartheid, and still benefit from its legacy to this day through access to economic opportunity that millions in this country can only dream of. So please stop whining and rather use that opportunity to help build something better.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 05:15:54 +0000
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