Current events got me thinking....
I’ve been waiting for things to calm down a bit and now they have so….
A few weeks ago, I woke up to the radio dude going off about some students at the University of Free State; a racism alert. Basically these four White students got five Black janitors( think matronly women) and got them to do a number degrading things one of which was to eat food that they, the boys, had urinated in. Oh yes, then they made a video of it.
Of course there was a political and community outcry. Politicians quickly stated that they were very disappointed in these boys and some other well worded gibberish which basically meant, “I like Black people, vote for me”. My dean even sent all us an email stating that NMMU is nothing like Free State, bladdy bladdy blah and some other BS. The boys were quickly taken to court and tried. I don’t remember how they were punished. Now there’s evidence that it wasn’t urine they poured on the meat but water. They just wanted it to “look” like urine. I’m sorry but I fail to see how that makes it better. The intent is still there if I’m not wrong. You obviously wanted people to think it was urine or you wouldn’t have bothered with the water to begin with….but I digress. Back to the fall out. There was this great fall out, yes. Everyone verbally reprimanded the four boys, yes. Everyone that is, except for the Black students at Free State. Apparently they went mad, attacked the White students on campus, and manhandled a few the girls forcing the Whites to barricade themselves in their hostels.
So now there’s this silence thing (Sorry the word eludes me). To cut a long story short, the White people humiliated these Black women in a video and the Black people got angry beyond provocation so now everything is all even now and we should just keep on keeping on.
Are these people serious?
What happened was, well, words seem to elude me today but I’m thinking along the lines of intolerable, horrible, and frightening. Frightening because suddenly here is proof that ignorance is still alive and well since only an ignorant person would do such demeaning things braced on the premise that he is “White” and they are “Black”. Stupidity intensified actually. How can you sweep such stupidity under the rug? Perhaps the Black students knew this collective forgetting was going to take place so they took their chance to vent, before it was taken from them. Is collective forgetting actually everywhere?
This whole incident makes a mock of the whole Global Village dream. That idea is unattainable while society continues to separate itself based on race, religion and culture. In fact what we are actually moving towards to is a Global Feudal State, with America as King, the various other western powers as minor Lords and us as serfs, providing the raw cash crops so that they might sell them back to us for triple the price. Being a serf in this new Global Feudal State is of course based firstly on not being a citizen (or green card holder) of a western power. Second, on not being White. Thirdly, last but definitely not least, belonging to a religion that does not have Jesus Christ playing a major role is a definite serf quality. If you are all three then, pardon my French, but you are truly fucked.
To make something clear, South Africa is not worse than America. It is just different. In the States they have something I like to call “pretend equality”. Pretend Equality is where everyone goes around pretending everything is equal and everyone accepts the Status quo because occasionally a Black person happens upon a lot of money, e.g Oprah. Of course that is cow manure. While Ms. Winfrey is posing for her photo spread in Forbes, I am being followed around in JC Penney because I have no right to unsupervised shopping unless of course I am in the company of White people. Anyway, Oprah’s getting a photo spread precisely because she is an anomaly.
But that is the way it is. And no one complains very loudly anymore, just under their breaths. Being not-White means living a muffled existence. Separate but equal is still alive and kicking, it’s just that it’s politically incorrect to call it that nowadays; 50’s slang doesn’t work this century, see. Because yes, everyone has the same rights but not everyone has the same access to these rights. Yes, if you want to be in an honours class and you are not White then your mother has to go and fight for your cause with the school counsellor. Yes, anyone can apply for a job but Shaqwanda James has a half a chance, less if Sharon James is applying too. Yes,equal! but the idea of a Black or woman president is still so novel that discussions about the next president are based on guessing which America is more ready for, woman or Black?
South Africa on the other hand, has something I haven’t quite put my finger on yet. They’re in a scenario America hasn’t ever had to deal with apart from in nightmares. Black Government. This is a whole new aspect to the colour clash. The former slave is now the master. Then there is this other one, Fear. The White South Africans are afraid of being punished for past misdeeds. The Africans are afraid that if they even give an inch then they will lose what they have fought so hard for. You can’t blame them really. The last time they gave Europeans a chance and said,
“Fine you can chill here for a bit till your country forgives you for being an ass” ….it kinda blew up in their faces.
Fear unadulterated and pure.
But I might forget the bitterness. Bitterness of centuries spent as servants on their own land, of Apartheid aka legalized degradation of the masses. Bitterness due to a life lost as virtual masters. And then there’s the Coloureds, Indians, and Asians, thier bitterness of being categorized as whatever is convenient for the government, non-White during Apartheid, White after. There is so much bitterness. The general opinion is wrong. The shadow in a man’s eye has little if anything to do with being a murderer. That shadow is where the bitterness eats away at the light in your eye, if you let it.
I can see the fear, the bitterness which America also has but there’s the other piece that I can’t quite see, and it’s the one that makes the difference. Maybe it’s the fact that in the case of African Americans, they were dragged across oceans to humiliation while the Black South Africans found humiliation knocking at the door to their huts? No, that does make a palpable difference but its not it.
I wonder what those boys would say?
I’ve been waiting for things to calm down a bit and now they have so….
A few weeks ago, I woke up to the radio dude going off about some students at the University of Free State; a racism alert. Basically these four White students got five Black janitors( think matronly women) and got them to do a number degrading things one of which was to eat food that they, the boys, had urinated in. Oh yes, then they made a video of it.
Of course there was a political and community outcry. Politicians quickly stated that they were very disappointed in these boys and some other well worded gibberish which basically meant, “I like Black people, vote for me”. My dean even sent all us an email stating that NMMU is nothing like Free State, bladdy bladdy blah and some other BS. The boys were quickly taken to court and tried. I don’t remember how they were punished. Now there’s evidence that it wasn’t urine they poured on the meat but water. They just wanted it to “look” like urine. I’m sorry but I fail to see how that makes it better. The intent is still there if I’m not wrong. You obviously wanted people to think it was urine or you wouldn’t have bothered with the water to begin with….but I digress. Back to the fall out. There was this great fall out, yes. Everyone verbally reprimanded the four boys, yes. Everyone that is, except for the Black students at Free State. Apparently they went mad, attacked the White students on campus, and manhandled a few the girls forcing the Whites to barricade themselves in their hostels.
So now there’s this silence thing (Sorry the word eludes me). To cut a long story short, the White people humiliated these Black women in a video and the Black people got angry beyond provocation so now everything is all even now and we should just keep on keeping on.
Are these people serious?
What happened was, well, words seem to elude me today but I’m thinking along the lines of intolerable, horrible, and frightening. Frightening because suddenly here is proof that ignorance is still alive and well since only an ignorant person would do such demeaning things braced on the premise that he is “White” and they are “Black”. Stupidity intensified actually. How can you sweep such stupidity under the rug? Perhaps the Black students knew this collective forgetting was going to take place so they took their chance to vent, before it was taken from them. Is collective forgetting actually everywhere?
This whole incident makes a mock of the whole Global Village dream. That idea is unattainable while society continues to separate itself based on race, religion and culture. In fact what we are actually moving towards to is a Global Feudal State, with America as King, the various other western powers as minor Lords and us as serfs, providing the raw cash crops so that they might sell them back to us for triple the price. Being a serf in this new Global Feudal State is of course based firstly on not being a citizen (or green card holder) of a western power. Second, on not being White. Thirdly, last but definitely not least, belonging to a religion that does not have Jesus Christ playing a major role is a definite serf quality. If you are all three then, pardon my French, but you are truly fucked.
To make something clear, South Africa is not worse than America. It is just different. In the States they have something I like to call “pretend equality”. Pretend Equality is where everyone goes around pretending everything is equal and everyone accepts the Status quo because occasionally a Black person happens upon a lot of money, e.g Oprah. Of course that is cow manure. While Ms. Winfrey is posing for her photo spread in Forbes, I am being followed around in JC Penney because I have no right to unsupervised shopping unless of course I am in the company of White people. Anyway, Oprah’s getting a photo spread precisely because she is an anomaly.
But that is the way it is. And no one complains very loudly anymore, just under their breaths. Being not-White means living a muffled existence. Separate but equal is still alive and kicking, it’s just that it’s politically incorrect to call it that nowadays; 50’s slang doesn’t work this century, see. Because yes, everyone has the same rights but not everyone has the same access to these rights. Yes, if you want to be in an honours class and you are not White then your mother has to go and fight for your cause with the school counsellor. Yes, anyone can apply for a job but Shaqwanda James has a half a chance, less if Sharon James is applying too. Yes,equal! but the idea of a Black or woman president is still so novel that discussions about the next president are based on guessing which America is more ready for, woman or Black?
South Africa on the other hand, has something I haven’t quite put my finger on yet. They’re in a scenario America hasn’t ever had to deal with apart from in nightmares. Black Government. This is a whole new aspect to the colour clash. The former slave is now the master. Then there is this other one, Fear. The White South Africans are afraid of being punished for past misdeeds. The Africans are afraid that if they even give an inch then they will lose what they have fought so hard for. You can’t blame them really. The last time they gave Europeans a chance and said,
“Fine you can chill here for a bit till your country forgives you for being an ass” ….it kinda blew up in their faces.
Fear unadulterated and pure.
But I might forget the bitterness. Bitterness of centuries spent as servants on their own land, of Apartheid aka legalized degradation of the masses. Bitterness due to a life lost as virtual masters. And then there’s the Coloureds, Indians, and Asians, thier bitterness of being categorized as whatever is convenient for the government, non-White during Apartheid, White after. There is so much bitterness. The general opinion is wrong. The shadow in a man’s eye has little if anything to do with being a murderer. That shadow is where the bitterness eats away at the light in your eye, if you let it.
I can see the fear, the bitterness which America also has but there’s the other piece that I can’t quite see, and it’s the one that makes the difference. Maybe it’s the fact that in the case of African Americans, they were dragged across oceans to humiliation while the Black South Africans found humiliation knocking at the door to their huts? No, that does make a palpable difference but its not it.
I wonder what those boys would say?
1 comments:
You rant so beautifully. :o) I'm abstaining from ranting, as it were, or I'd pitch in.
REPLYBut see, I think every second pushes SA to a bad fall-out. Think genocide. Resentment doesn't fuckin' die. People go to war over issues that are hundreds of years old. We've watched genocides unfold, you know, and the pattern is being faithfully followed here.
I hate to say it, because it sounds like defeatist evil, but all this pretense and the continued ideas ("we're superior, so we'll show you who's boss", and "we can't make anything of ourselves until we finish every last one of you off"), everything is just setting up the stage for the day when some victim's suffering (from either camp) will cause a simple enough-is-enough reaction, and the fire will have begun.
Genocides are sudden and unexpected by definition. Pray for those people.
hi! thanks for commenting. I'm always open to new ideas. I can't wait to hear yours.