Americans Noticing

Americans, the ones who pay attention, who have read, studied, examined South African racial histories and recognized the many obvious parallels of non-creative colonial racial policies and practices of both countries, or at least who reflect a bit about correlations between skin tone and poverty, come to South Africa and generally see the same thing:

Dramatic Racism and an almost total Systemic denial of Any Racism.

A few guests here now cannot get their heads around the 75% of South Africans who live in areas with no structured governmental support, with no formal electricity, very limited water, no mail services, very limited sewage, often no roads. Its as if the government said, we do not see you living here and so will not pay for basic sanitary living conditions. And 95% of these folks are African Language speaking Black folk. With no basic public infrastructure, as if they do not live in a country. Yet they live in the "new South Africa" that has sparkling stadiums, great roads, wireless internet, infrared alarm systems, top line wineries, in short, the issue is not an inability to provide public infrastructure.

And that is what is most shocking to American visitors who pay attention. Because how can a country clearly not provide ANY infrastructure? Even in the very racially segregated US, at least there is some (pathetic, unequal) infrastructure, even in reservations and the worst urban ghettos.

What I keep being asked is: why do these impoverished Black South Africans not rise up again, as they did during the Apartheid struggle years.

And my answers of globalization, affirmative action silencing the masses, availability of cheap alcohol, drugs, television, mass mediated images of African Americans who "made it"...simply do not resolve the lack of effective protest movements.