As a white Afrikaans boy born in 1988, you did not grow up knowing a thing such as racism. It’s something you learned about in school and in later years see about on the news. I have however seen a lot of things being blamed on racism, and to be dead honest I am getting sick of it.
We live in a complex where rules state that no one is allowed to be in the pool area before 16:00 in the afternoon. There was however people making lots of noise in the pool area from 14:00 already that afternoon. I did not however do anything about it as I did not want to get involved in a debate on a Sunday afternoon. Turned out it were some drunken black guys having a party at the pool on a Sunday.
My family came over for some “koek and tee” at my house at 16:00. It’s at that time that some of the other people in the complex also came to have a swim. A few minutes later I heard an argument breaking out at the swimming pool. I decided to go see what is going on. A white guy from the complex was arguing with a black guy visiting his nephew in the complex.
The white guy was concerned about the safety of the kids there whom was scared by the drunken black guy; he was drinking beer at the pool, which was also not allowed. Immediately when the black guy was confronted about this, he said “you are only saying this because I’m black”. He started swearing at us in front of the kids, and blamed us saying that we are racist.
That little word ticks me off! When a white person is arguing with a black person it is not because they are racist. How can we live in a free country when things like this are always blamed on racism? Is that in fact not being racist himself?
When I was studying at University of Johannesburg I lived in Oppierif Mens Residence. In my third year I was on the House Committee of the residence. We had designated parking at the University for our residence. It was clearly marked and visible that the parking was for “Oppierif Mens Residence only”.
I was helping one of my friends pack when I saw some guys parking in my friends allocated parking, I confronted them and told them that they are not allowed to park here as they are not in Oppierif, 4 of them flew out of the car telling me how I am racist and that white people do not belong in SA.
Now the question remains, when will this mentality of racism be left behind? Is racism a one way street? When will we be able to live in a country where everything is not blamed on racism? Will I be able to raise kids without telling them to rather not argue with a black person? To live in fear of being hauled to jail because something I might say may be regarded as racist.
I do however see how people adopt this mentality, as it is being used by the government. Everything that goes wrong is apartheid’s fault, taking no responsibility for themselves. I really do hope that this will change, but looking at what is happening in SA now as we speak, I really do doubt it.
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