Greetings to all.
Well I don't usually enjoy responding to these type of threads .. irksome is many people's attitudes, but in some ways the deeper underlying issues reflected here are symbolic of the greater global problems which plague our HUMAN race .. I understand this has never been a country where we can ALL get together to sing Kumbaya around the fire .. besides those ice-creams that Paige bought her "FRIENDS" might melt in that way.. or the fire might set the rubbish pickup ablaze with racial arguments. Oh my hat.. Sir Joseph Conrad where are you .. we need you ??? Drum roll..
Anyway, I digress. I read a horrible (and shocking.. yet interesting) book recently. It was an old STD 10 School.History textbook. Published in 1970. The way it defined the races into their places in society sickened me and disturbed me to my core. I was born in the early 80's and I think I'm correct in saying that by the time I was old enough to partially understAnd what the hell was wrong with this beautiful country bAck then, it was already almost 94'. Thank God for Tata Madiba.. seriously I truly believe we would all (incl. PAIGE) be biblically screwed without him. And in his words ..
"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. Nelson Mandela
Read more at:
www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/n/nelsonmand178787.html"
So my point is, the racism taught to kids about how each race had it's role and, place in this country, was at that time from books like that, to be ingrained in many people's mindsets for the next 40 years or more. We all know this now.. yet many people still propagate that same way of thinking. Without knowing it. I guess many of Fall into the trap of putting ourselves in the color boxes we have created in this country. We thereby limit ourselves to what we can do for this country, as it's people, because some of us only see what we can do as a person of a particular racial group. And not as just a person. Why should it matter, for example, to Paige that her two friends are black .. would it be different if they weren't. What does the fact that they are black have to do with the fact that she mentioned them. Is it that she is justifying herself by playing them in a box of what she has told herself is right thing to do.. whites befriend blacks because it mends the past.. what crap. So why did she mention her friends race at all. Are they not just good enough being her friends .. full stop ??
And why do we still see people's social roles aligned with their job titles.. in the UK garbage collectors are respected in general as much as any other job. But PAIGE feels the need to reward her garbage collector for doing a job.. yet her reward is not really done with a genuine motive .. rather one which is questionable, IMO.
Threads like this one therefore show the underlying tones which seem to let permeate our modern South Africa .. the dissapation of the rainbow, so to speak.
It is for this reason that people's attitudes struggle to change, why Twitter is abuzz with a race war everyday, and ultimately why we as a nation struggle to.love in kind.
And as I end off my lengthy post, I too am tempted to disclose my race.. but then, alas, that would be self-defeating of my whole argument wouldn't it?
Peace to all and happy Freedom day (for yesterday)..