Originally Posted by alicat

In Dec. hubby and I went to South Africa for his job for two weeks. I don't mean to offend anyone, but since this thread is about prejudice, I am going to say things about it from both sides of the Atlantic (this is from a U.S. perspective). This is by no means scientific and is mostly from hubbies perspective from working for two weeks at a S.A. company (and myself experiencing day to day life).

There seem to be 3 classes people fall into there. Afrikaans, colourd's, and niggers. I'm sorry for stating the last word but that is a fact there. Afrikaans are mostly white people and a few black that make up the "upper" class. Colourd's are black people that have one foot in the white world and one in the tribal (so to speak, this is all second hand through hubbies limited experience at one company, but dealing with all classes). "Niggers" refers to the tribal people, and they refer to themselves as that, as well as the Afrikaans and Colourd people do. I've posted before about my experiences there, but I feel like posting again for those of you who may not have read it.

In my experience, the so called "niggers" were in the most menial positions: cashiers, security guards, parking attendants, maids, etc.. One day, I had nowhere to go, so I went down to the dining room for breakfast to give the housekeepers time to do our room. I must have miscalculated the time needed as when I got back to our room the "maid" was only half-way done. I offered to leave and come back later but she insisted it was ok that I stay. I felt like a complete asshole as this poor woman literally got down on her knees and "swept" the entire room with a brush and a bucket of water. Hello? Had this hotel never heard of vacume cleaners? Even the cheapest fleabag motel in the US has vacumes for the housekeepers. This was a 3 star hotel which in my opinion (all else considered) should have been a 4 star. And the maids had to get down on their knees and brush the carpet. Obviously, human labor is cheaper there than buying a vacume per floor. I gave her a huge tip and cried once she left our room.

I know I might receive some angry reponses because of my forthcoming statements, but so be it. I wholeheatedly agree that the civil rights movement needed to happen. Unequality needs to be challenged and fought. But, the majority of black people living in America today were not slaves. Yes, their ancestors or (very, very, lucky to be still alive) older relatives might have been, but they were not. If even a fraction of black Americans were able to go to South Africa as I was lucky enough to, they quite possibly would not be complaining as much about what they have to deal with in the U.S. as far as racism or equality goes. Being there reminded me of what the U.S. may have been like 10 yrs. after the (legal) end of slavery.

Pay attention to that. Not the beginning of the civil rights movement, but the "end of slavery", therefore the late 1800's. Thats how far behind South Africa is in comparison to our country. Yes, hubbie and I laugh at "Timah" (Timmy) on South Park, even though it's making fun of a stereotype, but it is just a momentary chuckle and not representative of the way we deal with or judge people. Being in S.A., we didn't find anything to chuckle about. We loved the people (mostly the tribal people) and we left the country feeling mostly negative about the "white" people that we were forced to interact with through his job. Frankly, the white people disgusted and saddend us with their snobby attitudes and obvious prejudice against anyone who wasn't white (almost laughable given that white's are very much the minority there).

Ali