(with apologies to Thoughtsandstuff - http://www.news24.com/MyNews24/Apartheid-angst-no-thanks-20121014)
I have many less than fabulous traits. I'm impatient with people who are less intelligent. I sometimes lack tact. I have strong opinions, and I never fear sharing those opinions and defending them vehemently.
I suffer from insomnia sporadically, and I have bad eyesight.
But for all my problems, I don't suffer any ANC angst.
Don't get me wrong - I know the dispensation can be wrong. It's just that I had no hand in it, and no way to stop it. Why should I beat myself up for it, or allow other people to?
The way I see it, if I am required to feel guilty for the ANC, then I should also feel guilty for what the Hutus did. Or what Mugabe who took over farms did.
My involvement with either of those groups is, after all, as close as my direct involvement with the ANC, so why should that be any different?
The fact is that ANC is doing a lot of the crap that we are seeing in SA today. No denying that.
But for the past 20 years, the dismal failure to create a fair, equal and non racist society in South Africa has been brought to you courtesy of the ANC (who, I should add for the record, I ALSO don't support.)
When I see the articles on here by white South Africans trying to palm the guilt of the people who created and supported ANC off on me, I have to wonder what they are smoking.
Here's the thing: if I stole your car, then by all means, hold me accountable. If my brother / uncle / third cousin twice removed stole your car, then go after them, and leave me the hell alone. Otherwise, it's harrassment, and you, NOT me, are guilty of the crime.
I won't stop anyone from going after anyone that they can prove directly wronged them. But blaming all black people for the ANC’s mismanagement is one thing, and one thing only: racist.
Until people realise that - and I mean both the racist white people looking to punish innocent people for a disfunctional regime they had no part in, AND the black people who seem to think that just because they look like Mugabe... ooops, I mean Zuma, they have to take responsibility for it, we're going in circles.
So whether you're trying to blame me because I look like people who harmed your family in some way, or because you've been guilted into it, don't bother. I won't accept the blame, any more than I will accept blame for Hosni Mubarak because he was not white, or OJ Simpson, because he was a man.
People are individuals. There are good ones, and there are bad ones. Blanket classifications have a name. Racism.
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