Now that you say that I believe you’re right. I even mistakenly accused him of being Aussie once before awhile ago and he corrected me then. :smack:
This would be “interesting” if it hadn’t already been raised and dealt with in this very thread. Immigration is not a proxy for racism in South Africa the way it is in the UK.
There’s clearly more of a certain kind of prejudice in South Africa than in the UK. What would you call it? Xenophobia?
Yes, exactly xenophobia.
Just to expand on that:
It’s mainly nationalism-fueled xenophobia, to be exact (unlike the UK’s half-racism half-nationalism brand). Post-Apartheid, the various SA governments put a lot of propaganda effort into trying to get a very divided nation into thinking of itself as one country and one nationality.
It kinda-sorta worked, too, which is amazing if you have any experience with where it was coming from. But this virulent xenophobia is partly one of the unintended consequences, I think.
It’s kind of sad - I can remember what it was like before - the workers on the gold mines I was a geologist on were from all over Southern Africa, but there wasn’t anything like the current resentment of people from Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique.
It obviously didn’t work on you, you practically jumped down my throat when I tried to make a joke about you supporting a South African athlete in the Olympics.
But really that’s a shame. I wonder if there is any way to build a nation without that unpleasant side effect? After all, you can’t have an in-group without an out-group.
I’m quite keyed to people ignorantly projecting their own nationalism onto me - people assume just because I do defend South Africa when it’s being maligned with factually incorrect smears (you could search for previous threads on White genocide in South Africa, for example), that I’m nationalistic. I’m not in the slightest - I think nation-states are an absurd idea. I just hate bullshit.
Sure - you could base your nationalism on being a nation of immigrants. That used to be part of the American Dream spiel. Of course, it fell apart rapidly when the immigrants were no longer mainly White. But other places could do it without that aspect.
If a District 9 event (interesting South Africa tie-in / coincidence there) ever became real, I think we’d find many more humans suddenly decide we’re all “us” and the Aliens are “them”.
Sadly I think that’s the first time most humans would be willing to consider all humans “us”. Accursed monkeys that we are.
Evidently. I couldn’t care less if you’re nationalistic or not, but I don’t appreciate being invited to the Pit over a harmless joke.
Only if you are a nation of immigrants. I don’t think that’s true of most African countries. They’re largely lines drawn on a map by colonising empires, with little if any regard for which people live where.
Anyway, @LSLGuy is right. This thread is supposed to be about America, and whatever the problems with racism in the UK, they aren’t the same as those in the US, and I doubt SA is the same either. We’ve got way off topic.
You’re not the first person to speculate that alien invasion is the only way to get humans to unite.
(I enjoyed District 9, but I thought the way it depicted the Nigerians was pretty racist.)
Maybe next time drop the ignorant speculation about things you know absolutely less than thing about, then - like my circumstances:
Not to worry, In any case I think the facts don’t have a nationality. I am from the UK but consider myself an international and spend a considerable time working and travelling abroad. I don’t mind a bit being mistaken for an aussie, a wonderful country.