Race Matters

A couple thoughts getting stuck on the cobwebs in my brain:

How was it possible that I stepped foot in South Africa without ever thinking that race would be an issue during my trip?  It was THE issue and the fact that I could be so clueless probably has a lot to do with my ability as a white guy to selectively engage the issue of race.  

It felt soo good to be non-Afrikaner.  This is significant, but I'm not sure how yet.  Something to do with not being the guilty party, or at least not the local chapter.  As a white person in the States, when you mock white ignorance it's a little scary because the implication is that you've arrived at some higher plateau of understanding than your co-caucazoids.  If you reveal otherwise at a later date, then you look like a total ass, it being worse to fraudulently act like you "get it" than to simply be an average clueless white guy.  Ted Haggard is kind of there.  But in South Africa, the difference between white and Afrikaner is significant enough that making fun of Afrikaners only means you can see the wart on their nose, but not necessarily your own.

I have this image in my head of a white person from the States stepping off a plane in Africa and calling the first black person they see an African-American.  That is funny on so many levels to me, sort of the ultimate expression of a certain "informed cluelessness" that I see in some people and probably demonstrate myself at times.

Blacks in Africa are not minorities.  I have to remind myself of that when I think and talk about this stuff.  Afrikaners are 10% of the population, but my impulse is to call blacks (or Blacks?) minorities.  I think part of that is simply the influence of my American context, but some of it is also a reluctance to call myself a minority.  There's some kind of power struggle going on in my madula oblongata, or wherever it is that language is processed.

Someone gave me a book once called "A Race is a Nice Thing to Have:  A Guide to Being a White Person or Understanding the White Persons in Your Life"  That title always sticks out to me.  I haven't read it yet, but will try to do so soon.