And black Africans in South Africa were oppressed for decades and decades for being black. Don’t act like there’s not still a wealth and power imbalance. One of the things that grates my nerves more than anything else as someone who loves history is when people refuse to…

not once in my statement do i negate the history of my country.

the apartheid years ripped us apart, and caused more pain than many countries are even aware of. i am VERY AWARE of our history, i am reminded of it every day of my life

nor do i negate the truth of economic inequality in my country, but the economic inequality has little to do with the racism, in fact, go look up the wealthy of south africa, and you will find that apart from the top 10 wealthiest (who i advocate against anyway) the wealthiest people in South Africa are the PoC, not the whites… since 1994 there has been a steady transfer of power from white ownership to black ownership through the use of Black Economic Empowerment and this makes perfect sense, seeing as they are the majority of the people, but the sad truth is that the predominantly poor Black Africans have not benifited from this shift in power, while the whites have been slowly but surely cast out. (again one could argue that this is justified, and i would certainly not even try to say anything to the contrary, lest i be labelled a racist) but the truth is that the predominantly poor areas include both white people and PoC and the economic divide is growing daily.

so when someone makes a blatantly ignorant statement, i also will not sit idly by and watch it pass

the white people in this country suffer just as much as the PoC under the new government, and failing to recognize this was the point of my argument. the only difference between the old government and the new, is that the new government can easily hide behind their skin colour and use past atrocities as a means of maintaining their positions of corrupt power. none of this is understood though. all that gets said is that the black people suffered and so it’s only right that the white people suffer now… WHAT?!?!?!?

i stand up against racism almost every day of my life, and to read some American college student’s flippant reply to an issue that sits very close to my heart, is more than i can bear. I have two brothers, and of the three of us, none is able to find meaningful employment in our own country, because tour skin is not dark enough. we cannot live in certain areas, because our skin is not dark enough, we cannot attend some events, because our skin is not dark enough…. at what point am i allowed to call this what it is…. racism ?

at no point, because i’m white… and that’s my point. american college students who don’t understand the full picture cannot get away with simply making idiotic, marginalizing remarks. THAT IS NOT OKAY!

please note that this last remark was not aimed at you DigestivePyrotechnics…