This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/19/charlottesville-stellenbosch-south-africa-racism-history
The article has changed 7 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 4 | Version 5 |
|---|---|
| I've seen this racial denialism before – in post-apartheid South Africa | I've seen this racial denialism before – in post-apartheid South Africa |
| (about 9 hours later) | |
| The violence at Charlottesville has renewed America’s uneasy debate about race and privilege, and stirs memories of a place I lived and worked for six years: South Africa | |
| David Smith in Charlottesville, Virginia | |
| Sat 19 Aug 2017 11.00 BST | |
| Last modified on Sat 19 Aug 2017 15.19 BST | |
| Share on Facebook | |
| Share on Twitter | |
| Share via Email | |
| View more sharing options | |
| Share on LinkedIn | |
| Share on Pinterest | |
| Share on Google+ | |
| Share on WhatsApp | |
| Share on Messenger | |
| Close | |
| John Edwin Mason first visited South Africa before Nelson Mandela walked free from prison, and he keeps going back. He is an associate professor at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, now at the centre of the American conversation about race. Does Charlottesville remind him of anywhere in South Africa? “You kidding?” chuckles Mason, who is African American. “Charlottesville reminds me of Stellenbosch.” | John Edwin Mason first visited South Africa before Nelson Mandela walked free from prison, and he keeps going back. He is an associate professor at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, now at the centre of the American conversation about race. Does Charlottesville remind him of anywhere in South Africa? “You kidding?” chuckles Mason, who is African American. “Charlottesville reminds me of Stellenbosch.” |
| Having lived and worked in South Africa for six years, I get the comparison. Stellenbosch is a charming university town with colonial architecture, fine cuisine and pretty streets and squares, surrounded by mountains and vineyards. “And there’s a certain complacency and self-satisfaction in both towns,” Mason adds. “In both, black people in poverty are hidden away. You can choose not to see it.” | Having lived and worked in South Africa for six years, I get the comparison. Stellenbosch is a charming university town with colonial architecture, fine cuisine and pretty streets and squares, surrounded by mountains and vineyards. “And there’s a certain complacency and self-satisfaction in both towns,” Mason adds. “In both, black people in poverty are hidden away. You can choose not to see it.” |
| Last Saturday, Charlottesville, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, witnessed a march by white supremacists and Ku Klux Klan members wielding shields, clubs and guns as well as Nazi swastikas and Confederate flags, ostensibly protesting over the planned toppling of a 1924 statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee. Violent clashes led to the death of one counter-protester and a response from Donald Trump that many found sickening. | Last Saturday, Charlottesville, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, witnessed a march by white supremacists and Ku Klux Klan members wielding shields, clubs and guns as well as Nazi swastikas and Confederate flags, ostensibly protesting over the planned toppling of a 1924 statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee. Violent clashes led to the death of one counter-protester and a response from Donald Trump that many found sickening. |
| In sharp relief came a tweet by Barack Obama, America’s first black president, quoting Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president: “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion ...” It has become the most liked tweet ever, with 4.3 million users showing their approval. | In sharp relief came a tweet by Barack Obama, America’s first black president, quoting Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president: “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion ...” It has become the most liked tweet ever, with 4.3 million users showing their approval. |
| In recent days, I have been struck by familiar tropes from South Africa, where the white right persists as a fringe anachronism 23 years after the end of racial apartheid, flying old flags and grievances for a purportedly imperilled culture (but lacking an avatar such as Trump), and where statues have become a political flashpoint, most notably one of the British colonialist Cecil Rhodes that was pelted with excrement and eventually removed from the University of Cape Town. | In recent days, I have been struck by familiar tropes from South Africa, where the white right persists as a fringe anachronism 23 years after the end of racial apartheid, flying old flags and grievances for a purportedly imperilled culture (but lacking an avatar such as Trump), and where statues have become a political flashpoint, most notably one of the British colonialist Cecil Rhodes that was pelted with excrement and eventually removed from the University of Cape Town. |
| But there was something else that rhymed: a debate around racial consciousness, inherited privilege and what Mason referred to as “genteel denialism”. While Charlottesville has the pleasant patina of a liberal bastion in the south (Hillary Clinton won nearly 80% of the vote here), its African American population, once more than half the total population, has declined to less than a fifth. “That’s people voting with their feet,” Mason said. “They’re leaving because of the lack of opportunities. Those things have shaped this city.” | But there was something else that rhymed: a debate around racial consciousness, inherited privilege and what Mason referred to as “genteel denialism”. While Charlottesville has the pleasant patina of a liberal bastion in the south (Hillary Clinton won nearly 80% of the vote here), its African American population, once more than half the total population, has declined to less than a fifth. “That’s people voting with their feet,” Mason said. “They’re leaving because of the lack of opportunities. Those things have shaped this city.” |
| In the New Yorker magazine, Jia Tolentino recalled racist incidents at the University of Virginia and a fetish for tradition, though the fact that slaves had built it was hardly discussed. She wrote: “In fact, Charlottesville, while it is home to many progressive people, skillfully models the exact sort of coercive propriety and self-exculpation from the legacy of American racism that has allowed white supremacy to publicly re-emerge.” | In the New Yorker magazine, Jia Tolentino recalled racist incidents at the University of Virginia and a fetish for tradition, though the fact that slaves had built it was hardly discussed. She wrote: “In fact, Charlottesville, while it is home to many progressive people, skillfully models the exact sort of coercive propriety and self-exculpation from the legacy of American racism that has allowed white supremacy to publicly re-emerge.” |
| Mandela was elected in 1994, Obama in 2009; in both cases, a post-racial society proved to be a myth. Political liberation in South Africa has not been matched by economic liberation and, pockets of vibrant discussion apart, there is often an unwillingness to confront white privilege. An apartheid mindset persists in many institutions, notably policing, where black people have been targets of brutality. Universities remain dominated by white academics, literature by white publishers and rugby by white players, implying that the black majority is still a cultural minority in its own country. | Mandela was elected in 1994, Obama in 2009; in both cases, a post-racial society proved to be a myth. Political liberation in South Africa has not been matched by economic liberation and, pockets of vibrant discussion apart, there is often an unwillingness to confront white privilege. An apartheid mindset persists in many institutions, notably policing, where black people have been targets of brutality. Universities remain dominated by white academics, literature by white publishers and rugby by white players, implying that the black majority is still a cultural minority in its own country. |
| Mason, 62, who teaches African history, said: “We know the denialism in South Africa. I find astounding the number of white South Africans who will insist they did not benefit from apartheid, despite the fact most universities and most professional occupations were only open to whites. I first went to South Africa in 1989 and the first time I saw a white beggar in Cape Town, I was tempted to shake his hand because I knew how hard it was for a person to fall all the way through the cracks.” | Mason, 62, who teaches African history, said: “We know the denialism in South Africa. I find astounding the number of white South Africans who will insist they did not benefit from apartheid, despite the fact most universities and most professional occupations were only open to whites. I first went to South Africa in 1989 and the first time I saw a white beggar in Cape Town, I was tempted to shake his hand because I knew how hard it was for a person to fall all the way through the cracks.” |
| Some white South Africans have broken through by wearing T-shirts that say: “I benefited from apartheid.” Mason commented: “This is impossible to imagine in the United States, except in small groups of activists that have been very central to fighting racism and white supremacy. To acknowledge white privilege, you have to say: ‘My accomplishments are not my own. I benefited from a system that oppressed others.’ That’s hard to admit: that you didn’t do it all on your own. | Some white South Africans have broken through by wearing T-shirts that say: “I benefited from apartheid.” Mason commented: “This is impossible to imagine in the United States, except in small groups of activists that have been very central to fighting racism and white supremacy. To acknowledge white privilege, you have to say: ‘My accomplishments are not my own. I benefited from a system that oppressed others.’ That’s hard to admit: that you didn’t do it all on your own. |
| “Charlottesville residents love their grandparents and great-grandparents, who might have contributed to civic causes, but they did create the Jim Crow system, they did find ways to segregate schools, they did find ways to disenfranchise black voters. They created the structures of oppression of which there are still traces. How do you wrap your minds around that?” | “Charlottesville residents love their grandparents and great-grandparents, who might have contributed to civic causes, but they did create the Jim Crow system, they did find ways to segregate schools, they did find ways to disenfranchise black voters. They created the structures of oppression of which there are still traces. How do you wrap your minds around that?” |
| Charlottesville was voted the happiest place in America in 2014 by the US National Bureau of Economic Research. But as in the affluent suburbs of Cape Town or Johannesburg, there are invisible lines of segregation that endure long after the cameras have left town. Some African Americans here describe alienating situations reminiscent of Jordan Peele’s film Get Out, in which a liberal white mask (“I would have voted for Obama a third time if I could”) falls away to reveal a horrific racist reality. | Charlottesville was voted the happiest place in America in 2014 by the US National Bureau of Economic Research. But as in the affluent suburbs of Cape Town or Johannesburg, there are invisible lines of segregation that endure long after the cameras have left town. Some African Americans here describe alienating situations reminiscent of Jordan Peele’s film Get Out, in which a liberal white mask (“I would have voted for Obama a third time if I could”) falls away to reveal a horrific racist reality. |
| Andrea Douglas, executive director of Charlottesville’s Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, said: “I have an MBA, PhD and master’s degree. I’m more educated sometimes than most of the people in the rooms I sit in. That education doesn’t isolate me in any way from comments that begin with, ‘You’re surprisingly articulate!’ I’m married to a man who owns a business in the downtown mall and it’s really interesting to see people’s reactions to that. | Andrea Douglas, executive director of Charlottesville’s Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, said: “I have an MBA, PhD and master’s degree. I’m more educated sometimes than most of the people in the rooms I sit in. That education doesn’t isolate me in any way from comments that begin with, ‘You’re surprisingly articulate!’ I’m married to a man who owns a business in the downtown mall and it’s really interesting to see people’s reactions to that. |
| “Am I walking down the street and having people spit on me? No. But in this liberal country, the notion that I’m not one of them gets lost in the notion that yes, I am.” | “Am I walking down the street and having people spit on me? No. But in this liberal country, the notion that I’m not one of them gets lost in the notion that yes, I am.” |
| Douglas, 52, who was born in Jamaica but became a US citizen so she could vote for Obama in 2012, added: “I think white people acknowledge their privilege ad nauseam, but what they refuse to acknowledge is their potential destabilisation.” Like blackness, whiteness has been legislated, she argues: there was, for example, a moment when Irish and Italian immigrants “became” white. | Douglas, 52, who was born in Jamaica but became a US citizen so she could vote for Obama in 2012, added: “I think white people acknowledge their privilege ad nauseam, but what they refuse to acknowledge is their potential destabilisation.” Like blackness, whiteness has been legislated, she argues: there was, for example, a moment when Irish and Italian immigrants “became” white. |
| Stellenbosch University had an association with every South African prime minister from 1919 to 1978, including Hendrik Verwoerd, the principal architect of apartheid. It was only two years ago that a plaque commemorating Verwoerd was removed from a university building following a concerted activist campaign. In 2014, two white students caused outrage by wearing “blackface” to portray the tennis players Venus and Serena Williams at a costume party. | Stellenbosch University had an association with every South African prime minister from 1919 to 1978, including Hendrik Verwoerd, the principal architect of apartheid. It was only two years ago that a plaque commemorating Verwoerd was removed from a university building following a concerted activist campaign. In 2014, two white students caused outrage by wearing “blackface” to portray the tennis players Venus and Serena Williams at a costume party. |
| The University of Virginia was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, America’s third president, who drafted the Declaration of Independence but was also a slave owner with a morally ambiguous legacy of his own. Kate Franleigh, 68, a retired nurse, who was among the counter-protesters on Saturday, said: “My church is the Thomas Jefferson Memorial church. Every two years or so we have big meetings about getting rid of his name, but it never goes anywhere.” | The University of Virginia was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, America’s third president, who drafted the Declaration of Independence but was also a slave owner with a morally ambiguous legacy of his own. Kate Franleigh, 68, a retired nurse, who was among the counter-protesters on Saturday, said: “My church is the Thomas Jefferson Memorial church. Every two years or so we have big meetings about getting rid of his name, but it never goes anywhere.” |
| Franleigh believes that more white people need to confront the privilege they enjoy after centuries of structured inequality. “There are a lot of white people who think it’s a past problem and not a present problem, that white supremacy isn’t still having an impact. There’s a mentality of ‘pull yourself up by your boot straps’, but they – we – don’t realise that every step of the way we’ve been helped.” | Franleigh believes that more white people need to confront the privilege they enjoy after centuries of structured inequality. “There are a lot of white people who think it’s a past problem and not a present problem, that white supremacy isn’t still having an impact. There’s a mentality of ‘pull yourself up by your boot straps’, but they – we – don’t realise that every step of the way we’ve been helped.” |
| Virginia | |
| South Africa | |
| Race issues | |
| Africa | |
| features | |
| Share on Facebook | |
| Share on Twitter | |
| Share via Email | |
| Share on LinkedIn | |
| Share on Pinterest | |
| Share on Google+ | |
| Share on WhatsApp | |
| Share on Messenger | |
| Reuse this content |