apartheid (n.) separateness; a system of racial segregation that governed South Africa for nearly fifty years
Three weeks ago, I watched a biographical drama film, Hidden Figures (2016), which elaborated the story of three female mathematicians who worked in National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and made contributions to Project Mercury. The three characters were not only outstanding female mathematicians, but also African Americans, who were discriminated by their colleagues. Problems faced by each of the them in that film revealed how policies that imposed on the colored people violated human rights.
For Katherine, she couldn't find “her restroom” near her office in the building so that it took her at least 30 minutes to move and to use the toilet whenever she needed to. For Dorothy, she was not allowed to borrow books from public libraries and she also complained about the separated seats on the bus. For Mary, a talented woman engineer, her ability was not approved just because of her skin color. The officials intentionally made it difficult for her to apply the engineer position through requiring her the diplomat which she didn't have and “couldn't” have. In the end of the film, all of them completed what they wanted to do. When I watched this movie, I couldn’t stop thinking of another film, The Help(2011), which depicted a different and even opposite side of African American women. Still, I’ve got a multitude of questions about how women got over these obstacles and their roles in family comparing to black men.
Well, “Apartheid” is not a term that I am familiar with, so that’s why I started this article by sharing waht I knew about “Segregation.” As high school students, we’d read about the speech from Martin Luther King Jr. — I Have a Dream, and heard the story of Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat to a white man on bus. Few years later, I’d learned about Jim Crow laws and KKK (Ku Klux Klan) as I studied American Culture and History and Its Representation when I was a college student. The professor led us to read the slaves’ autobiographies and traced the origin of African slaves in the U.S.. There came some other movies about the topic such as 12 Years a Slave (2014) and Harriet (2019), which focused more on the Civil War. For me, definitely there are some similarities between “apartheid in South Africa” and “segregation in the US.” Both of them are related to racial discrimination, but the history backgrounds are quite different. Luckily, we had this clip which catches the main points of “Apartheid.”
“During the colonial realm for the country between the Dutch descended Afrikaners and the British, the rights of native black South Africans were sidelined. So when Apartheid officially made law in 1948 by the Afikaners-led National Party, it was a continuation of injustices already happening. Afrikaners believed that South Africa was their God-given Homeland and that the white race was superior. The black majority was therefore seen as a threat.There were 148 Apartheid Laws.”
- Afrikaner (n.) an ethnic group in South Africa descended from predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries. Afrikaners made up approximately 5.2% of the total South African population (2011).
- God-given homeland (n.) Afrikaners often seen themselves as God’s chosen people and South Africa is the homeland from God. *Btw, there is a white-only town in South Africa — Orania.(Click and see the report from CNN)*
A VICIOUS CIRCLE
“People were classified into four racial categories: White, Black, Indian and Colored people of mixed race and they were separated into different residential areas…….forcing blacks to seek work as migrant labours. Wages were low and it was illegal for workers to strike. Apartheid was economically motivated. A cheap workforce was needed particularly to work in the counrty’s gold mines…….Non-whites had no political rights since they were not technically citizens. They couldn't vote…….Mandatory education system ended at the age f 13 and was funneled blacks into menial migrant labor. Exploitation by design.”
“Protests were often led by black students and youth and were met with severe repression. Out of these struggles came leaders like Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, and Walter Susulu, who would help bring an eventual end to Apartheid.”
With a quick and short intro of the background of apartheid, now here is my focus today. Recently (or years ago…since the article was published in 2016), some White South Africans felt they had been deprived of rights to work under the influence of the affirmative actions, or black economic empowerment policies. The government now had a quota on black South Africans in public sectors. So, probably for some qualified white applicants, they would not get the job or even be taken into consideration when there were other black competitors.
- affirmative action (n.) a set of policies and practices within a government or organization seeking to increase the representation of particular groups based on their gender, race, sexuality, creed or nationality in areas in which they are underrepresented such as education and employment.
- black economic empowerment (n.) BEE is an integration programme launched by South African government to reconcile South Africans and redress the inequalities of Apartheid. It encourages businesses to integrate black people into workspace, upskill and mentor, support black businesses, give back to mainly poor communities across the country which remain poor. “Businesses with a good level BBBEE (Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment) rating, stand a better chance of being awarded government contracts.”
At first, affirmative actions made me think of some policies promoting indigenous rights in Taiwan. The connections came to me because some people might feel unfair when they saw the natives had privileges to get into school and public sectors with lower standards or win scholarships more easily. But is this a fact or a biased, unproven opinion? The government not only provided subsidies for the poor families, leaving quotas in public sectors and in parliament, but it also tried to help develop indigenous autonomy. (well…not so sure about this, maybe only few people into this)
In brief, the affirmative action policy here then turns out to be more like quota systems for disabled persons for me. (In the UK, 1% quota for the disabled in businesses. In Taiwan, 3% in public sectors and 1% in private sectors.) If the black South Africans were not minorities of the populations, they could be seen as “handicapped” in terms of their social and economic status. *don’t forget the vicious circle and its influences…they had difficulties get into good companies* According to this piece of news, even though poor white South African people in “white slums” claimed that there was a “reverse apartheid” happening, they didn’t give evidence and statistics data to verify their statements. It’s hard for me to believe what they said. I would like to invite you to think about questions below with me.
- Do you agree that there is a “reverse apartheid”?
I feel like this is not a real issue but a red herring. Why do I say so? Well… White Poverty and Apartheid are two different issues which shall not be mixed up. From the report, we can tell the majority of poor South Africans are blacks and colored people, and the number has continued to grow. Although white poverty levels have increased, they become insignificant comapring to black poverty.*(Check the line graph about unemployment in South Africa in a report from CNN.)* As for white poverty, it probably is caused by the general economic situation of the country or of the globe. Unemployments are getting higher than before for many countries, so definitely the black people are not necessary to be blamed for the outcome, the economic slump. Besides, we shall question that which positions the Indians and other colored people were in. Did the affirmative actions have an effect on them or not? Why don’t we hear them? We didn't see the answer from the article. Therefore, this news might just the whites’ version of the story.
- red herring (n.) something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important question. It may be either a logical fallacy or a literacy device that leads readers or audiences toward a false conclusion.
2. Can we tackle the problem? How will you respond to the Afrikaners?
For me, I don’t really have an answer to this question. Like what I said above, the information is not enough for us to analyze and comment. But I do assure that we shall not use the term — reverse apartheid — to give reasons for white poverty. First of all, the term “apartheid” got its origin from the laws in 1948, which really tortured the blacks in the past. Second, the rights of the white South Africans are not violated at all. Instead, “during apartheid, jobs and housing were protected for whites, even those with a poor education and no skills were protected.” Last but not least, “poverty” here tend to be like “relative poverty” (not absolute poverty), it occurs when a person cannot meet a minimum level of living standards, compared to others in the same time and place. If you ask me how to deal with poverty, the government undoubtedly have to take actions on social, political and economical aspects. Education might be part of the solutions. What those Afrikaners should do is to examine the social welfare and social security systems rather than to provoke racial discriminations with this irresponsible statement.
Do you have any ideas or relevant news pieces about this topic to share with me? Please leave comments below, thanks! :-)
