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How do we get South Africa to the point where the only K-word is Danny’s surname? The first step lies in realising what apartheid actually did.
Imagine you found out one day that your entire life and your parents’ lives had relied on the exploitation of nine other people – each. Imagine you one day woke up and looked those other people in the face. What would you say? “Er, well this is awkward”? “Boy, you really missed out”? “Verwoerd made me do it”? Would you tell them to “get over it”? How in hell do you tell those nine people that their demands are just “entitled”, Chris Hart style? Economic servitude, what’s the big deal man? “Shame. Nom, nom, nom, mmm, apartheid cake.”
The problem at the Hart of it is that many South Africans are kind of clueless about what apartheid actually did. How do you create a system where brown people can’t go to the beach and then you yourself go to the beach to get brown?
If you couldn’t own land, and had restrictions on movement and employment, you couldn’t build capital or economically central social networks. Duh.
If your parents had to be away for months at a time, it might have been a bit tense around the house when they got home. Duh.
If your parents couldn’t accrue wealth back then, they probably can’t afford to pay your university fees now. Duh.
Imagine that passbooks, homelands, forced removals and Vlakplaas happened to the people in AfriForum. They’d be acting entitled for the next two centuries.
The thing is, most white South Africans do actually see themselves as caring, kind people.
Some, however, have a weird self-edit thing when it comes to apartheid, or, more importantly, its legacy. You can’t have all the toys for decades and then when the other kids get freedom still think you should have all the toys. Now that’s entitled.
Put down the beach Penny; it belongs to everyone now. Besides, “Penny Sparrow” makes you sound like a cheap pirate.
I get that sometimes the enormity of it is hard. If you think dealing with the burden of being an apartheid beneficiary is tough, imagine being one of its victims, and then being told you are acting entitled? Damn, that must be annoying.
I mean really, white South Africa. From calling those little black sweets that change colour ni***r balls to unilateral white economic protection, the history of our own direct involvement in the system of racism is so shameful it blows my mind that we don’t troll racists into oblivion ourselves.
Expecting black people to tolerate the racism in our midst is itself apartheid denial. And you don’t support apartheid, do you?
@chestermissing is SA’s top political analyst puppet and associated with ventriloquist @conradkoch
