Over the past week or so I have found myself discussing race and race issues with different people. It started with the maid, Lena. Her and I discussed her life growing up under apartheid. She told me that when she was younger she would play with the white farmer’s children. Her mother, worked on this farmer’s orange farm. Consequently when she was a young child Lena didn’t really notice the affects of apartheid. Her first boyfriend was white, he was the farmer’s son. Lena is colored, meaning she is from a mixed background. When she was in middle school Lena moved to go to a school closer to the heart of Cape Town. While in school she lived with her older sister who constantly scolded her about not attracting too much attention and learning to live with the harsh laws of apartheid. Lena was not and is not the type of person who likes being told what to do or being limited for no apparently good reason. Naturally living under apartheid was hard for her because she was very limited simply because she was colored. The interesting thing to me though, was the way she was taught to view black people while she was growing up. In school she learned that black people were bad, not to be trusted, and not worthy of anything. The apartheid system successfully turned most blacks and coloreds against each other as well as against white people. When I asked Lena if apartheid was harsher on black people than coloreds and if so why she told me this, “it was more difficult because black are more self-righteous.” Now I don’t know if blacks were more self-righteous. I doubt that they were, but her response demonstrates the negative feelings that many colored people have towards blacks.

             I than began to ask her about her life now. She said even today she does not like black people. I she is taking a mini-bus taxis she refuses to sit next to a black person even if it is the only seat left. She will simply wait for the next bus to come. In general she said that she tries to avoid black people because she just does not like them. I asked her how she would feel if her young eight year-old son was best friends with a black boy. She told me that she hopes he will not have the prejudice that she does. Lena claims that she will not care if her son is good friends with a colored, however only going through that experience will one really know how she will react. She did say that she is having her son learn black languages, one of them being Xhosa. Lena recognizes her insane prejudice against black people, but she says that it is too deeply ingrained in her and she cannot really change it. I feel like recognition is the first and last step here in South Africa concerning racial prejudices. 

            Last night my friend Bre and I was talking to one of the Sol- Mates from the program. Weezy is black, Xhosa in fact. We were talking to him about how he is treated as a black person here in South Africa. He told us that on campus he is treated fine, but off campus it changes. Weezy said that coloreds and whites will respect him if there is something to respect, like the fact that he is educated. He also told us that the coloreds in the pub, where we were having this conversation, would respect him initially because he was with us girls and we were white. We were watching the South Africa vs. New Zeeland rugby game and the best place to do that is in a bar or pub. Anyway back to my story…… Weezy told us that despite the progress that has been made with regards to racial tension, there is still a lot of hatred between blacks and colored people. Weezy is from Jo-burg. He said that Cape Town is much more accepting and people are further along where racial acceptance is concerned. Jo-burg, is much further behind. Weezy once asked his father how he would feel if he brought a white girl friend home. For just asking the question Weezy’s father didn’t talk to him for half of the day. Weezy also said that if the three of us were in a pub in Jo-burg that our picture would be in the paper the next day because mixing between races is so unheard of in Jo-burg. He said that initially things were good because people talked about racism a lot and tried really hard to start bridging different races. Now however, people don’t really talk about it. Weezy said, “Its funny that people don’t talk about it because we are still living and breathing racism. The only thing you can do is try to respect all people no matter how they treat you and try to change the world a little bit every day.” 

            Racism is still a big deal. People are obviously still struggling to get over the apartheid prejudices that were ingrained in them. There are struggles every day because of race, violent and non-violent. South Africa is making progress, but it will be a long time before blacks and coloreds will be able to look at each other without thinking about the prejudices that they have been taught. I hope that they will get there soon and that the children will not listen to their parents prejudice.                           

   Well there is my cheery entry for today. I should probably stop procrastinating on my homework. Talk to you soon!-Leah