I am a South African of Indian origin. I grew up learning and knowing my place in apathheid South Africa.
Freedom finally came to the nation and the healing of integration began. My first interaction with white ppl came in my late 20s.
The racist had truly vanished. And I questioned their existence. Fast forward… I’m now 44. And living and working in New Zealand.
Their be expats from my homeland… BUT,… No one of colour… Only white Afrikaners. A nation who fought so vigorously to protect the way of life and their culture that they packed up their white privilege moved to a British colony to speak English.
I’ve been in New Zealand 3 years and from time to time will cross paths with a South African or two.
They never cease to amaze as they project their arrogant demeanor and holier than thou attitude. I accept that that is who they are and who they will always be.
The issue is within me. The rage anger and hatred that I feel toward the Afrikaner as a nation for all they have done to me and and ancestors. All 5 generations. And to every non white South African.
I and a Hippocratic though. I have an Afrikaners friend who is as good as a sister to me. Go figure,… IRONY!!!
It’s difficult to forgive more so even harder to forget.
Am I as equally racist and bigoted and so many of us are. Or am I just selective in those that I despise!!!???
I am a South African of Zimbabwean origin: that is, I am white, and benefited from the tail-end of Rhodesia - but I consider myself Zimbabwean. I went to mixed race schools my whole life, and rarely encountered racism that was not from the older generation (from both sides). I’m also around your age. Zim’s independence was a full 16 years before RSA’s first free elections.
South Africa has been an open democracy for only 24 years. The youth here are generally much less racist than their parents: similar to my experience in Zim - as time moves on, people realise that actually skin colour is not a good indicator of anything. Obviously this is not always the case, but it seems to be a general trend. Zim has had 38 years, and even with the Mugabe government’s finest efforts, I think that racism has declined dramatically.
The worst racist whites in Zim (and later in RSA) fled the country - first to RSA, then to Aus and NZ, and they will never change their attitudes. However, their children will grow up with more moderate views. And we can only hope they marry into a more accepting community which will further improve their parent’s bias.
So in short, no. I do not think you are “equally racist and bigoted” and I too despise racists. I think you need to try to look at the next generation and teach your children (if you have any) to be more tolerant and open minded; eventually the scourge of racism may be eliminated.
This question, however, probably belongs in a different forum, reported for change.
Some mod will be along soon to move this to a more appropriate forum, but my 2 cents:
Quite surprised you haven’t run into non-white expats, there’s quite a few Coloured ex-South African kiwis in my family. Or even just English White SA expats, there are lots of those too.
It’s not bigoted to hate bigots, nor is it hypocritical to despise some people for how they act, while liking others of the same ethnicity.
But speaking personally - it’s a huge mistake to focus on Afrikaners and ignore all the English Whites who, as a group, were just as complicit in Apartheid yet somehow escape a lot of the blame nowadays.
Now, whether you should still be holding onto rage and hate, that’s your choice, but I’d ask - why are you still letting the fuckers live in your head rent-free?
Thank you for sharing and your honesty. I do believe that as the world ages and becomes more inclusive that race and intolerance will become a vice of the past.
To see children here of multiple ethnic groups and of immigrant begins gives hope that the next generation will not be subjected to the injustices and narrow minded baggage that most of us carry from our past.
I live the Bay of Plenty in New ew Zealand. Most immigrants flock to the major cities. Perhaps that maybe the reason for not finding non white south Africans in my neck of the woods.
It is true that what u say that both the English and Afrikaner South Africans shared and benefited from the spoils of their conquest.
My personal experience has saved me or should I say jaded my perception of English speaking white South Africans. All of my interactions with them were mostly positive. So I guess in that respect I’m biase or blissfully ignorant.
As for them housing rent free… This was not an issue until I arrived in New Zealand to have my perfect world bubble burst…
I know it’s pointless raging and hating. But I also believe venting is apart of healing. And others perspective is food for thought and sustainance for a wounded soul.
How many white South Africans just simply moved when apartheid ended, being so hateful of non-whites? … how many non-whites moved as soon as they received equality? … AFAIK, New Zealand is not known as a racist hotspot, but some of the other English speaking countries have well documented histories of genocide … the United States, Australia and India are examples … so perhaps what you’re finding among the South Africans in New Zealand is the result of filtering, it’s the racists who left South Africa rather than see non-whites in positions of power …
Hard to know motives, but 1 million (that’s 20%) left in the first decade after apartheid ended. That’s since slowed considerably.
A lot less - but then, they wouldn’t have had the financial resources to immigrate that generations of theft granted the White emigrants ( Chicken runners, as they’re known locally)
I think you’ll get very different views on that depending if you asked a White,
Maori or Asian New Zealander.
I think you’ll find there was much more evidence for anything approaching actual genocide in New Zealand than India…
India was unsuccessful removing all the Muslims from the subcontinent … so the evidence of this genocide is still obvious along the India/Pakistan border … white New Zealanders did a much better job destroying the Maori culture so far less evidence exists … that’s the thing about genocide; if it works, then the people are forgotten … who today whines about the Ukrainians lost during WWII? …
Except for Geoffrey of Monmouth, the English probably wouldn’t know there’s was an indigenous British people before the Anglo-Saxons invaded …
Please note I’m using a bit broader definition of genocide … killing all the people is the easiest way to destroy the culture, but not the only way … Africans that were brought as slaves to the New World weren’t murdered, but they had their past and culture beat out of them … I would include this as genocide …
The relatively peaceful transition out of Apatheid was surprising to me. I met a South African man in Florida in the late 70s who had left there positive that there was a violent uprising on the way. I can well understand animosity towards the Afrikaners based on the history of that country.
I was referring to the actual, near-complete New Zealand genocidethat White people were only indirectly intermediaries in. The Maori were definitely *not *the victims in that one, either, but ultimately colonialism was at fault.
It makes sense to be angry at a system and population that oppressed others and profited from it. But it sounds like you can separate that from evaluations of individual people, like your friend who is Afrikaners. How did that relationship happen? It had to mean you were able to suspend your judgement long enough to get to know this person.
From my understanding of India Pakistan history the partitioning of the subcontinent was occastrated by Churchill.
It was a deal negotiated with Jinah and the the British Raj to secured a homeland for Muslims within a once united and inclusive India. If u pit factions against each other they tend to lose focus as to who the puppet masters are.
The movie Viceroys House aka Partition 1947 is an accurate portrail of the history of India and Pakistan and the events that led to the the mass migration within the subcontinent.
In essence by your definition of genocide, a definition which I agree with in part, because ppl by circumstances and relocation begin to develop new identies and cultures. A case in point being the Indians in South Africa. Having been to India and experiencing its ppl I can confidence say that the only similarities are that we are of the same faith and brown.
Here in New Zealand there is a large number of Indians. We broken up into India born Indians and others namely those born outside of India.
Colour of the skin and ethnicity is were the interactions stop. So even commonality how it’s limitations.
I suppose what I am trying to say is that the world is made up of similarities and diversity. As the generations progress and integration takes place the future will be based on less race and more of integrated class distinction.
I met my Afrikaner sister around 2010 when we were team mates on a social media game called Moonbase. Chatting strategy and life we found mutual respect and a lasting friendship. My wife loves her and she has spent holidays with us. My next aim is to buy a ticket to come holiday with us. But 1st we need to work on her fear of flying.
I met a lot of white South Africans in the Caribbean, when many were leaving SA.
Oddly, not only had they chosen to move to countries run by black people, but I never saw any of them being anything but polite as well.
It went against expectations, I was prepared to fully dislike them , but you couldn’t.
Which leads me to believe not all S. Africans are prejudiced against blacks.
If someone is an arrogant ass, it is not racism to dislike them, it’s reason.
Churchill had little, if anything, to do with it. He was not Prime Minister at the time. The main British actor in that affair were Mountbatten and Ratcliffe and of course the Prime Minister, Clement Attlee.
This is the confusing thing about forgiveness: Only the good people will want it from you. The bad people want you to hate them. Or at best, they don’t care one way or the other. But the ones who deserve your hate and anger would absolutely love to know that they were getting to you. They would greatly enjoy thinking of you, over there on your own wasting precious minutes of your time on Earth on emotions that make you unhappy and keep you from enjoying yourself.
The lie that anger tells you is that by feeling it you are doing something, achieving some form of equilibrium. Anger makes you feel powerful when you are truly powerless.
This bad feeling, anger, bitterness, you are harboring is not magically flying across land and seat to make them less happy. You are the only one feeling it. Forgiveness is not for making the bad ones feel better. Forgiveness is for letting yourself feel better.
So forgive them. The good ones will feel better, the bad ones will never know, and wouldn’t care if they did, and above all, YOU will feel better. You will have demonstrated to yourself that you are the one with all the power.
I’m a white, 40-something man in the U.S.A. There’s plenty of racism in this country, it’s just a LOT more subtle than it used to be … at least that used to be the case. Trump’s election was a turning point and a wake-up call for a lot of people, as no one had stood up and said the kinds of things he openly said and got away with it since the 1960s. Personally, I see Trump as the last gasp of an older generation. At least, here’s HOPING that’s true! Before him (and all the white supremacist rallies he inspired) the best indicator of racism was the sheer number of neighborhoods all over the place that were made up almost entirely of people of one color. Curiously, the nicer such neighborhoods tended to be white, while the “bad” neighborhoods tended to be mostly non-white. What a coincidence! :rolleyes:
As to the subject of the OP, resentment is just a way of letting someone else use your mind rent-free. Pity these ignorant fools, because you can live a better life than they will ever have.