Let's accept all colors of the rainbow #40

"Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination".



How is South Africa dealing with the Apartheid issues being illegal now since 1994?

Apartheid was a system of racial segregation enforced by the National Party governments of South Africa between 1948 and 1994, under which the rights of the majority non-white inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and white supremacy and Afrikaner minority rule was maintained.

How have South Africans after the end of apartheid been able to share space? You know that the laws that defined Apartheid in terms of geographical separation no longer exist. Now people are free to go anywhere, to live anywhere, where they can afford to live, so the space restrictions are no longer in place, but the historical reality of Apartheid in South Africa continues. You find that residence is still highly segregated and Africans don’t go into certain areas out of habit not to go into those areas.

The black and white issues are still deeply grounded in this country. This is not to say that nothing has changed. Quite a bit has changed, but a whole lot more needs to be changed. However, for the ordinary African life is still very much segregated, townships are still there and the white areas are still white areas.

For me, this is not always that easy. I have never lived in a country that cared that much about a skin color, it never really mattered that much what skin tone you had. But here in South Africa almost 20 years after the Apartheid it is still a huge struggle.

When I walk with my friends (my friends are from all cultures and backgrounds) on the street or we go out for lunch, many times we are being asked: "How come you are friends? What is your connection?? Because they are surprised to see that we are a group of friends with different skin tones, and obviously come from different cultures. This doesn't happen only once in a while... NO it happens frequently that we are asked these questions? The local people still don't mix! So they find it interesting to see how we can have so much fun and hang out together while having white, black, brown, yellow skin tones!

What baffles me the most is that they still find this weird, in this day and age!!

Shame on them! But then again.... they grew up with Apartheid and I guess it is not out of your system just after one generation!

I hope for South Africa that this Rainbow nation excepts all colors of the rainbow as equal rather sooner than later!! Because now I don't see it yet!!


source here.

How are people dealing with racism in your country? I know it is not political correct... but how is it for REAL??
Do you still hear derogative comments from people around you? And what do you do about it? Do you confront people about their racism? Or let it just go??

I wonder if standing up more for this subject matter would help or not??
Mireille xx