across the lines

So there’s a topic I’ve been wanting to write about for a while now and an encounter the other night has inspired me to finally get to it. Racism. I realize that apartheid only ended very recently with Nelson Mandela in 1994, so it’s only really been about 15 years since racism has been “outlawed” in this country. But it still boggles my mind how openly racist so many people are.

Okay, so in all honestly most of the white South Africans that I’VE dealt with are not racist. Trudi, the operations manager at the Cape St. Francis rehab, is an activist for many political and social issues and she actively fights against racism. Also, all of the volunteers and people involved with the Eastern Cape penguin rehab as well as the people over at Sanccob aren’t racist (or if they are they don’t say anything), but I feel like people who care about animals and the community (in the sense that they donate their time to help out at the rehab) are more likely to be progressive and more open-minded. That’s definitely a generalization, but with my experience working with animals this theory has proven true.

However, even though a lot of white people are trying to shun their racist upbringing, the black community is far from recovered from the past. This became very evident soon after we started working at the Eastern Cape rehab and received a very cold welcome from Viwe, Xolani’s wife. Xolani is the curator at the rehab and Viwe works there as well, helping out with the penguins and helping to run the gift shop. She has yet to really say a word to either Michaelle or I (okay, actually this morning she answered my bright “Good morning, Viwe!” with a nod and a mumble that resembled something suspiciously like “good morning” but that was definitely a first). And one morning (before we left for Cape Town) she pitched the biggest fit and went off on Trudi because she felt like Trudi was letting us help more with the penguins than her and that wasn’t fair because we didn’t have to go through all the training that she had and that wasn’t fair because she didn’t have the opportunity to go to school like us just because she was black. She is definitely still very bitter and very sensitive to having “privileged” white people around. I get it, of course, and regardless of the fact that I think she should give us a chance and not hate us off the bat just because we’re white, I do understand where she’s coming from. And it sucks. It sucks that this country has this history and it sucks that black people have not and continue to not get the same opportunities that white people do.

It sucks that there is are these two very rich towns (Cape St. Francis and St. Francis Bay) that are full of beautiful, expensive vacation homes and rich old white people drive BMWs around while right in between these two towns there is a huge collection of tiny shacks built out of wooden planks and tarps pulled across the tops for roofs and bare-footed kids are running around starving. It shocks me every time we drive past and I can’t wrap my mind around the stark contrast of these two worlds that are so vastly different, yet right next to each other.

So I said that most people I’ve dealt with here are not racist. But the other night I was hanging out with Lynne and Gordon (the couple who run the bar downstairs), playing some cards, and in walks a very handsome white dude, obviously a surfer. So he sits down next to me and I’m showing him how to play the card game and we’re just chatting about stuff. He said he’s from Cape Town so I was like “Hey, I just went there, I love your city, it’s great…” and so on. He responds “Oh, it’s terrible. It’s a kak city and it’s all corrupt. All these damn caffers are taking over and getting jobs that they don’t deserve.” Oh man, my eyes must have gotten as big as saucers as I stared at him incredulously. “What did you just say? You’re a racist!” “Yeah, I am. What of it?” Ugh. I went off on him. Then I tried to have a constructive discussion. Pointless. So then I just went off on him some more. And everyone else was like “Oh yeah, people are just like that, you just have to accept it.” Um. No. It’s not okay. I get that people are brought up that way, but that doesn’t make it okay. Don’t tell me to just accept it. He’s wrong. He needs to know that he’s wrong. Or at least not be proud of the fact that he’s racist. I mean, don’t admit to it!! Hang your head in shame!! And if you continue to just ignore it and think that “it’s just the way people are” nothing is going to change! I’m not going to just sit here quietly and let some dude talk about “useless caffers.” Ugh. I was so angry that night. I think it was the culmination of feelings from various small events that have happened throughout the past month that act as a reminder of this country’s past and how much it is still struggling with the residue of apartheid. And I know that the USA is still struggling with our past and that we are far from perfect and that racism still exists there too. I guess I’ve just never encountered such blatant racism in the past.

Anyway, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I love this country and it’s great. But man does it have a long way to go. Oh don’t even get me started about the current president, Zuma. The Clinton scandal pales in comparison to what this guy’s got going on. Yeesh. That’ll have to be a subject for another post…