photo - voulez.fr
by Clifford F. Thies
In the increasingly racist and ignorant United States, people are not even embarrassed to blurt out such nonsense as is a person "too white" to represent South Africa in the Miss Universe pageant. But, when Melinda Bam walked across the stage at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, there she was, in all her whiteness, and thence it came, all the racist and ignorant remarks in the social media.
(See channel24.co.za "Why is Miss South Africa white")
The whites of South Africa consists of two distinct groups: the Afrikaners and the English. The Afrikaners first began arriving in the 16th century, soon after blacks began arriving in this country.
The English began arriving a bit later. The whites of South Africa are therefore as genuinely African as the blacks of the United States are genuinely America. The two groups together constitute about 9 percent of the population.
During the post-apartheid period, these white are being increasingly subjected to violence both by hooligans and the police, so that today thousands are killed, tortured and raped. The prospect of South Africa transitioning to a pluralistic, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-party democratic country, as exemplified in the recent movie "Invictus," seems at risk. Nevertheless, there still are many South Africans who hold to the ideal.
In the increasingly racist and ignorant United States, people are not even embarrassed to blurt out such nonsense as is a person "too white" to represent South Africa in the Miss Universe pageant. But, when Melinda Bam walked across the stage at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, there she was, in all her whiteness, and thence it came, all the racist and ignorant remarks in the social media.
(See channel24.co.za "Why is Miss South Africa white")
The whites of South Africa consists of two distinct groups: the Afrikaners and the English. The Afrikaners first began arriving in the 16th century, soon after blacks began arriving in this country.
The English began arriving a bit later. The whites of South Africa are therefore as genuinely African as the blacks of the United States are genuinely America. The two groups together constitute about 9 percent of the population.
During the post-apartheid period, these white are being increasingly subjected to violence both by hooligans and the police, so that today thousands are killed, tortured and raped. The prospect of South Africa transitioning to a pluralistic, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-party democratic country, as exemplified in the recent movie "Invictus," seems at risk. Nevertheless, there still are many South Africans who hold to the ideal.
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