Race in South Africa is a complicated matter.
RUGBY
"Do it for the Boks and win" is the slogan on a promotional postcard showing a black player for the Springboks surrounded by three women of differing skin tones. If I could interview the right people, I could write a long article about this.
The Springboks are the predominantly white national rugby team. Some say there aren’t enough black players on the team. I believe the black players make up one-third of the team.
Others say, look at the national soccer team. No whites there and they’re losing. Of course, whites make up less than 10% of South Africa’s population, I believe.
Some say rugby is a white game, while soccer is black. Our Soweto tour guide said the only rugby field in Soweto is outside a police station where white police played. I read somewhere that rugby development funds go to poor white schools instead of black schools.
APARTHEID-ERA ISSUES
There’s a lot of passion here about racial issues. The government is considering bringing charges against some whites who didn’t confess to certain apartheid-era crimes before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Some say that’ll destroy reconciliation in the country. Or that if they charge the whites, they ought to charge the blacks involved in anti-apartheid violence. But, say others, crimes committed to oppose apartheid are morally different from crimes upholding apartheid.
SHIFT TO AFRICAN NAMES
Meanwhile there’s lots of renaming going on. Replacing British or Afrikaans names with African names. Like changing Jan Smuts airport outside Johannesburg to OR Tambo. Pretoria to Thswane. Though English-language papers and radio say Pretoria and so do all the highway signs.
It’s important for South African motorists to buy recent maps, so they can keep up with street name changes.
EMPLOYMENT
Employment — especially creating new jobs to reduce high unemployment — is another hot topic. After years of white predominance, there are programs to promote black employment. There’s something called BEE — black economic empowerment?
We spotted a roadside sign saying, "We’ve got jobs — even for white men."
APARTHEID MUSEUM
I found the Apartheid Museum amazingly non-condemnatory of white South Africans. It spoke about the challenges for Afrikaners, British, and other ethnic groups, in addition to those for blacks. It didn’t make me feel defensive.