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So what are race relations like in South Africa, specifically between whites and blacks? Are they tolerant of eachother or is there lots of mixing? What do you guys think? How do the different African ethnicities get along?
I was just there a few weeks ago. I did think that there is still a divide... in Johannesburg for instance neighborhoods are still very much divided along racial lines. I went on a Safari and my white driver was spewing out all sorts of stuff that sounded pretty racist - he was going on and on about how the country is "taken over" by blacks when the white man built everything in South Africa etc. etc. you get the point.
Well, it's a fact the whites , and particularly the resilient Afrikaners, with their pioneer mentality comparable to the american one in days of yore, -so politically incorrect nowadays-actually created and built SA. Her was not being "racist", he was simply spewing a fact, even that 's inconvenient to today's dominant Liberal ideology. Which doesn't mean the whites shouldn't share the country with the other South africans, it wouldn't be fair. It's also a fact that apartheid is dead and buried. But I guess the Rainbow Nation must invent new ways of living together in a peaceful country. Right now, the post apartheid transition is largely a failure.
When I was there in the summer of 1994 there was obvious enthusiasm over Democratic rule. I saw South Africans both black and white excited about their future. Some of the younger whites who were in their twenties told me had Apartheid not been lifted they were emigrating to Australia like many of their friends had done. They told me that Apartheid only benefited the top 5% of the population.
There was a large gathering of people in a park and a black SA told me one year ago all the black people would have been arrested. A black woman and a white man who were colleagues kissed each other on the cheek as you do when greeting one another, that would not have been okay a year ago. I was the guest of family who were the only blacks living in an upscale suburb. They would not have lived there a year ago. I witnessed an incident that was resolved quite smoothly and my host said a year ago there would have certainly been an arrest.
Each morning I was brought tea by their maid and I sat out on their balcony watching people drive by and noticed how many of the black men off to work riding in the back of pickups trucks would watch me. I always wondered what they thought of me. I don't know what life is like today for any of the people I met but it certainly started out one year into Democratic rule without a hitch. My experience in SA at that point in time 20 years ago left me thinking that America had not come that far at all or perhaps was taking over 100 years to do what the stroke of a pen did in SA with regard to race relations. I think the difference is in SA poor or underclass whites saw the system that was so oppressive to blacks was not benefiting all whites and I think the same group of whites in America saw the oppression of blacks benefiting all whites.
So what are race relations like in South Africa, specifically between whites and blacks? Are they tolerant of eachother or is there lots of mixing? What do you guys think? How do the different African ethnicities get along?
Although this is a great chance for a nation to put aside their differences and move ahead.Throughout history it's the innocents who have suffered the most whether black or white.
I think bishop Desmond tutu had the most tolerant attitude of all S.A. leaders but he was eclipsed by ANC leadership
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