Category: "Politics & Culture"
Talk is Cheap: Thoughts on Post Apartheid South Africa and Gentrified Portland, Oregon
Tags: Apartheid, Gentrification, Portland, Race, South Africa
I was not at all shocked by the recent outbreak of xenophobic violence in South Africa. It has been just 14 years since the fall of apartheid and, by the the looks of the townships, the lives of the indigenous haven't much improved. Why would they? Institutionalized racism disenfranchises, displaces and divests wealth from those it segregates, in South Africa's case, specific Black ethnic groups like the Zulu, Xhosa, Basotho, Tsonga, Swazi and Ndebele. Apartheid's end didn't change those real disparities and the confessions elicited by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission didn't assuage that sustained trauma, didn't make up for that underdevelopment, didn't endow them with ownership to their countries wealth, provide them housing, food to eat, fair wages or quality education. All it provided them were words, not justice. So why wouldn't they lash out at whomever was nearest when their frustrations with their lot bubbled over. I'm sure they had sense enough to know that if you're gonna wild out on someone, let it be your immigrant African neighbors and not the white, wealthy and/or powerful, which is not to say that ethnic tensions/prejudices could have played some sort of role. That said, I'm with Chris Rock, who weighed in today with these words,
"It's broke-on-broke violence. It's broke people robbing each other," the 43-year-old actor-comedian said at a news conference Monday. "That's the sad thing."
