Brenna second from right
About a month ago, I was at an event in which I was the only foreigner in a group to talk about the effects the South African government has on local communities. Having the least experience with the topic, I was excited to listen to what the community members had to say, so when they persistently told me to be the representative for the group I was taken aback. Why me? I knew the least about what was being discussed. I had to decline several times and strongly encourage another woman to take my place before being relieved of the job. A couple weeks later, a student from one of the high school classes I hiked with gave me back the shorts I loaned her and, as she did so, she emphatically said, “ My Mom was so happy for me to wear a white girl’s shorts!”; I told her I knew she’d do the same for me, but the comment she made didn’t sit well in my stomach- what did she mean? Recently, I had a conversation in which a man from Khayelitsha, the largest township in Cape Town, told me “If you see white people in the township, you know they’re foreign”; I later asked a white South African about this comment and he disappointingly agreed with it’s truth. As I think more about these events – and several more that have happened to me – I see how they are linked. Separately and together these experiences express how white supremacy is so engrained into society here and on a global scale that it disconnects people and disengages individuals from being empowered people who recognize their potential to effect much needed change.
Before coming here, I did not put a face to racism. I knew the oppression was real but I conceptualized it only in the institutionalized sense, concentrating on the flaws of societal systems that disable coloured and black people from access to what they need to be contributing civilians. Experiencing these incidents, hearing the inspiring Sharielle (thank you!) talk about her experiences and discussing related topics in class has finally made me realize the effects of racism beyond the subjugated communities to the individuals within them. Now, I can put not one but several faces to the heartbreaking disempowerment caused by prevailing racist ideologies. I see the inferiority complex that rests in the eyes of beautiful people I meet and how it impacts them and it angers me deeply– they are defeated before they can hope, before they understand how worth it is for them to find what they believe in and stand up for themselves. Every person in this world has the capacity to be who he or she wants to be to better the world, but racism imposes an illusion of hierarchy that squashes individual hope and transports power into the hands of a unrepresentative, mostly selfish minority of people. I know I can’t eradicate this oppression or any oppression on my own, so I need to do my best to do the little bit of good I can to challenge it and encourage others recognize their capabilities so that they can challenge it, too.
As these pieces fall into place, I am questioning my interactions more. Lianna and I are finally in the swing of our environmental after school program and I can’t help but wonder what the learners think of themselves and of me. I want to be an encouraging resource for the learners to use to embrace their own strengths and abilities by solving their own problems because that is who their community, South Africa and this world needs most – confident people able to pursue passion and make a difference; like the dancers we saw at the breakdancing/krumping show, their talent inspired every one in the audience because we saw people believing in themselves enough to do what they truly loved. I wonder how I can break down these arbitrary, insignificant barriers that separate us to connect with them, find with them the commonality of our humanity so they know they have the potential to do as much with their lives as I can with mine, and that we can work together to create a more equal world. There are so many beautiful, capable souls out there who deserve to know the value of their lives is equal to that of everyone else, it is only until we universally recognize this that peace, justice and love can be widely achieved
No comments:
Post a Comment