i benefit from apartheid

 

 

 

a short while ago two South Africans sparked an international discussion about racism, guilt and responsibility when they printed and distributed forty t-shirts with the slogan ‘I benefited from apartheid’ written on them:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

well-known political satirist Jonathan Shapiro [aka Zapiro] came up with this minimalistic but powerful cartoon which expressed his take on the matter:

 

 

 

are they right? yes, for sure, i definitely had [and still have] benefits from apartheid – they were not as a result of my choosing, or even my parents choosing, but they are real.

so in a nutshell i have to feel guilty for being white.

i also have to feel guilty for being male. women have been oppressed in this country and around the world for who knows how many decades, centuries even. have i benefited from that? surely i have. i may not have chosen my penis but it has served me well, just by being there.

what else is there?

english-speaking? because surely as one of the dominant languages that worldwide communication and media have been presented in, this has forced some kind of pain and trauma on those who have been forced to speak it?

christian? while i prefer the term ‘Christ-follower personally’ i know that being grouped in this group racks up the score column for guilt and shame [no-one expected the Spanish Inquisition…]

how about heterosexual? [because heaven knows we’ve treated the gays badly]

i imagine there are probably more, but it seems as if there is enough data to suggest that i am part of the most privileged demographic imaginable – white male heterosexual english-speaking christian… and therefore the most guilty.

i think i get it. to a large extent. having benefited from apartheid etc etc i need to own that and take responsibility and be involved in reconciliation and reparation where possible as well as doing what i can do to address the various imbalances that now exist as a result of the past.

at the same time, is there a time when it ends? when i can stop feeling the need to feel guilty because i am white, because i am a man, because i…

because, to be very honest, i did not have a lot of say in the whiteness of my white, i wasn’t all that involved in the maleness of my maleity, i was born into english, i am attracted to women [and one very beautiful one in particular]

the only thing on my list that i can see that i had any part in choosing to be a part of is the christian one and even there i have chosen to align myself to a Christ-following which i hope looks a LOT different from the majority of wrongs and perversions that the typical historical christian [those who profess one thing but live another] has gotten horribly wrong.

in terms of the apartheid debris in South Africa, i will continue to do what i can to make amends and take responsibility for the past i largely inherited, but will there be a time when i am allowed to ask questions of the post-apartheid government who continue to be a hive of corruption, mismanagement, greed and nepotism and spend/waste/party this country into the ground?

because, to be honest, it’s been 18 years now. you’re practically legal new democracy. Mandela showed you the way you could choose to live – with grace, forgiveness, honour, invitation, integrity… and it is up to you at some stage to embrace that.

to be honest, i don’t actively carry any guilt for any of who i am, no matter how much the pressure is exerted to do so. i know that i’m far from perfect and i try to live better, day to day, than how i lived the day before. i try to take responsibility when i mess up and make things right with the people i have hurt or wronged. and i believe this is something that needs to be embraced by every one of us, so that we can really turn this country around and make it the incredible place it should be.

so when do we stop blaming apartheid? when do we start taking responsibility together?

unity.

ubuntu.

you and me. let’s do this.

the country of africa [aka ‘these americaners are crazy’]

so the other day i am on one of the bizarrest [so bizarre in fact, english grammar policers, that it took ‘most bizarre’ to another level] phone conversations at work that i have ever been on, which basically ends with this old couple [him speaking, her in the background] letting me know emphatically that the appropriate number of times for one to have read the bible through from beginning to end is somewhere >30 [“I lost count at 30” being the background ladys enthusiastic response to my rather feeble, “um, i don’t know, 5 or 6 maybe?”]

felt a little like something along the lines of “No-one expects the Spanish Inquisition… amongst out weaponry are such diverse elements as fear, surprise, a ruthless efficiency and an almost fanatical devotion to the thirty fold reading of the word, i’ll come in again…” [especially when my office mate passed me a piece of paper with the title of that sketch on it]

but the finale moment was a classic as the old man commented on the fact that i must be from somewhere else because of my accent:

OLD MAN: I notice you have a different accent. You from England?
Me: South Africa.
OLD MAN: [excitedly] REALLY? What country?
Me: [holding back a year’s supply of sarcasm] South Africa.

i would love to hear your similar ‘the country of Africa’ stories…

[For the answer to the ‘Where are all the African Americans hiding?” question, click here]

for the sake of the chores part ii

ah bless (as they would say in the englandited kingdom)

it seems the thing about not being able to read tone from an email (so don’t ever have an argument via email – go live, really – meaning received quickly becomes not meaning sent) applies to blogs too

yesterday’s bermuda time triangle in marriage thort which i had intended as a light-hearted whimsical tongue-in-cheek adrian mole/adrian plass type “where’s-the-time” montage was interpreted as a serious cry of anguish which was ripping my marriage asunder and in the words of monty python, “i didn’t expect a kind of spanish inquisiti…”

“NOOOOOOOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!!! OUR CHIEF WEAPON IS FEAR, THAT’S ALL, FEAR AND SURPRISE… OUR TWO, OUR TWO MAIN WEAPONS ARE FEAR, SURPRISE, AND A RUTHLESS EFFICIENCY OUR THREE, THREE MAIN WEAPONS ARE FEAR, SURPRISE, RUTHLESS EFFICIENCY, AND AN ALMOST FANATICAL DEVOTION TO THE POPE… AH. AMONGST OUR WEAPONRY ARE SUCH DIVERSE ELEMENTS AS… I’LL COME IN AGAIN.”

or something. which did bring in a lot of well-meaning-intentioned explanationalisms on why dishwashers are the way to go (“saved my marriage” – anon) which is great and i really appreciate all the comments and the love and all of that, but i really was just trying to lightly comment on a phenomena and see if anyone else newly married had noticed the same – i think figuring out the time/space continuum together is an amazing part of marriage which will ‘save my marriage’ as long as we keep doing it together

[all that and our kitchen really doesn’t have space for a dishwasher so we’d really have to move if our marriage needed saving that much which fortunately at the mo, it doesn’t]

thankx everyone. especially you python!