Hi,

I am an Afrikaans South African that moved to the UK for work in 2003. 98% of my friends in South Africa are either black or Indian. I was raised to have manners and respect towards all people who shows respect and has manners towards me.

We have worked throughout the Gauteng Province & South Africa, from Soweto to Sandton. My team members were all black.

In every area there were people who treated us with respect, just as there were people who were rude and discriminated against us.

I am getting tired of hearing that Afrikaans white people are the guilty party. I have seen Indian, black, white, mixed race and other people be racist across the board in South Africa.

It's a pity that the narrow minded minority in South Africa that probably have to be coaxed out of the gutter with a piece of mouldy bread are the ones used as examples for the country.

I went on holiday in February 2008 in South Africa, and I had black teenagers shout things like 'whitey', 'witgat' and other abuse at me. I turned around and walked away, as I know I won't drop that low. What is that classed as? Bad manners, bad upbringing or racism?

South Africa will not recover in ten years. The country will take three or four generations still to recover, as you have a government with an old mindset filled with hatred about the past.

You still have a country full of older people with the same old mindset with hatred from all ethnic groups, and until that changes nothing will change, as they are the people who have to set the example to the younger generation.

I love the UK, as I can have a braai, get together, movie or dinner with people from all over the world, without being classed as strange, racist or a poor Apartheid leftover.

Ndumiso / Danielle, go and take a look at South Africa, go to where people still draw water from a well (not too far from Pretoria and Jo'Burg) and greet you with a smile, to where children cry when they see a white man as they have never seen one, to where the groups of children gather round you because you might have sweets.

Go to where the money for the waterpipes gets 'mislaid' year in and year out since 1994 (maybe we should blame it on Apartheid, instead of good old stealing), to where people will walk 50 kilometres for clean water, just so you can have a cup of coffee with them.

Go to Alexandra, Kopaneng, Mamelodi, Ga-Rankuwa, Madadeni, Osizweni, Fourways, Sandton, Ogies, Cape Flats etc. and see the country in its full glory before making such wonderful isolated comments.

I love all the people from my country, and what those students did were outright stupid. Get corporal punishment back into the police stations, and I can promise you after six lashes those three will not consider something stupid like that in the future.

Damn BBC for their ignorance.....

I in no way condone or accept what happened in that video but BBC and other news agencies are making things worse than it needs to be.

My remarks pertain to the following news article :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7278186.stm

Here is what is causing all the crap, comments like this :

The video shows white students at the University of Free State allegedly forcing black employees to eat food that had been urinated on.

Certainly not acceptable behaviour, but forcing?

Im sorry... did anyone see a form of forcing going on? Or is the BBC version of forcing differant to the rest of the world?

Here is the result of the Bullsh#t that the media is causing..... i suppose it is always the white man who is in the wrong :

"Students who are aggrieved by the video are suspected to be carrying out the intimidation," said university spokesman Mangaliso Radebe. "Tension is still high on the campus following the release of the video."

The incidents included the heckling and manhandling of a white lecturer, according to the university.

What the hell does the lecturer have to do with anything? "Manhandling" is that not assult? Yes, now i see where this is going?

Another thing, BBC asks a question, "Is racism alive in Africa" and then puts a South African flag next to it....What the hell?????

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/default.stm

This has gone way way way to far!

GO ON BBC, YOU REALLY MILKING THIS ONE! SHAME ON YOU!

if something constitues a hate crime, or blatant racism, yes, it should be punishable by jail time.
surprise surprise such a comment would come from a south african.
maybe a little time behind bars drinking the fluids of others will do them some good.

Oh how cruel are we as a human race!? I am a white South African who has also migrated from South Africa, originally for the prospect of seeing the world and now I am not sure anymore….

I have come across many people and everyone wants to know about the same thing…. The past apartheid in South Africa. The reality of the situation and this everyone should be aware of, Apartheid is over and dead. There is no more lock downs, or police running through the streets shooting people at will, there is no more “Black” toilets and “White” toilets. THE APARTHIED IS DEAD!

The apartheid has however left an open wound in South Africa, a scare that will burn for many years to come.

Let’s take a second to assess this situation for what it is. If we took the “South Africa” out of the equation, what do we see?
We see some kids being malicious, not just malicious but also they are putting themselves in a position of power. Not in the sense of apartheid power but the emotional sense that they are taking advantage of someone else’s lack of knowledge of the situation which took place.

I scorn each and every single person who passes judgment upon someone for taking this position of power without remembering what you yourself are capable of… Not because this position of power is correct but for the fact that we were all young at some stage in our lives (and some people never grow up), each time you have made someone cry for hurting them physically or psychologically you have taken up this position of power, every time you have discriminated, lied or teased someone you have taken this position of power….. You may pass all the judgment you wish but remember; every time you have taken joy out of someone else’s misery you have endured the same as these young men in this position to a lesser or greater extent with lesser or great consequences.

It is good that people see this behavior as wrong because that means that the human race still has empathy and sympathy and it is a reminder of how much our own actions can affect the people around us.

Let’s put this back in context, South Africa has a cloud which has hung over it for many years, lets call it a kind of window, this window is apartheid. Let’s look at this from different views and see what we get (let’s change the rolls a little):

4 Caucasian people doing this to 4 Caucasian people….. What do we have?

4 African people doing this to 4 Caucasian people…. What do we have?

4 African people doing this to 4 African people…. What do we have?

Let’s really mix this up…..

4 People doing this to 4 People…. What do we have?

Can we call this racism in every situation? Would you? Would you call this racism if it were 4 African people doing this to 4 Caucasian people?

A part of me wants to say that we should be very careful because if you look at it from the perspective of 4 people doing it to 4 people, because in reality it is. So everybody in this situation had a fighting chance to be in the position of the other and what I mean is everyone there is a person taking away the color aspect….. Is that not what we are supposed to avoid? Differentiating by color? Could it be that by differentiating we are being racist or possibly discriminating/favoring?

Let’s look at discrimination:
discrimination
A noun
1 discrimination, favoritism, favouritism

unfair treatment of a person or group on the basis of prejudice
Category Tree:
act; human action; human activity
╚group action
╚╚social control
╚discrimination, favoritism, favouritism
╚╚╚sexism
╚╚╚racism; racialism; racial discrimination
╚╚╚nepotism
╚╚╚heterosexism
╚╚╚fattism; fatism
╚╚╚cronyism
╚╚╚ageism; agism
╚╚╚ableism; ablism; able-bodiedism; able-bodism

2 discrimination, secernment

the cognitive process whereby two or more stimuli are distinguished
Category Tree:
psychological feature
╚cognition; knowledge; noesis
╚╚process; cognitive process; mental process; operation; cognitive operation
╚╚╚basic cognitive process
╚discrimination, secernment
╚╚╚╚taste; appreciation; discernment; perceptiveness
╚╚╚╚individualization; individualisation; individuation
╚╚╚╚differentiation; distinction

None the less, that is just food for thought because that could perhaps be called a fools world. In our word there is and may always be divisions, black vs white, east vs west, north vs south, christian vs protestant, hot vs cold.

Let’s get back to South Africa, let’s put the anger of the situation aside for a second and listen to what people are actually saying here…. This topic has reached a world wide level and upset many of people, the government of South Africa is also making a big thing about it. Good, it’s a small step in the right direction. What about the rest of the problems and one specific problem is the farm murders… This is a horrifying topic and what people are saying is, why is nothing being said about that? In this clip, African people are being humiliated, teased and embarrassed why is there not such a big deal about the Farm murders….. So basically the situation mentioned above “4 African people doing this to 4 Caucasian people” except exponentially worse…?

http://www.africancrisis.org/photos45.asp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X38CW6l-em4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S71PbichSw

Just take a second to imagine it… that’s all.

Now the final question remains, and this same question has been asked over and over… WHERE IS THE PUBLICITY ON THIS TOPIC? Where is the BBC reports and news, where is the hype? On one hand people are being told to leave the country if they don’t like the crime yet on the other hand there are protests and world wide uproars about 4 Africans being humiliated, the government pulling the racism card? Where are the direct responses to the Farm murders, tortures, multiple rapes, humiliation and pure brutality….? To the rest of the world, if you have something to say about one, you should have the ability to say something about the other…….Lets not forget the discrimination/favoritism. This blog is perhaps not for other bloggers because every person will have their own opinion, this is to the media, the press and the governments who propagate this and turn it around to make the general South African Caucasian suffer for the wrong doings of some few individuals and then fail to mention anything if the reverse situation is applied.

In South Africa, Caucasians do wrong things to Africans and Africans do wrong things to Caucasians. Please remember that when you apply a 79% African population and about 9% Caucasians population think about who will disappear first.

Just think statistically about how this video in a population with demographic details as mentioned above has reached this kind of level….

Take a look at the population figures of 1904 to 2007
1904 - African 67.45% Caucasian 21.58% Colored 8.6% Asiatic 2.37%
2007 - African 79.7% Caucasian 9.1% Colored 8.8% Asiatic 2.4 %

It’s very interesting as to how much the Colored and Asiatic figures have changed…?

Come on people can we please stop playing the racism card. Everybody knows there is some form of racism or discrimination all over and as I have mentioned before, it may never disappear.

It is wrong on either side and I don’t believe it is right in any way but please don’t blow this out of proportion. If it is going to be blown out of proportion the same should be done either way.

What I think we should do…. First we have to stop fueling the racism concepts in South Africa by not turning everything into a racial thing. The Apartheid has died, we, the new generation don’t even really know what it was. It’s time to move on and concentrate on what is important in our country. Its time that the people fight back against the darkness of South Africa, the death and brutality because I know there is also African South African who may read this, and I’m sure you will agree with me, the criminals in South African are going too far… Damaging South Africa’s reputation, this is bad enough to hurt the tourism in South Africa which intern will hurt the jobs in South African for both Caucasians as well Africans alike. The brutality of the crime affects all of us, we all have to lock our doors and we have to cry for our loved ones. We are all running and hiding from the same people, we should stop running away from each other, stand together and fight back against crime, poverty, corruption.

We have fought a hard fight and now we have finally reached a place where we can have equality and share a good country. Why do we have to sit back on this one…? We need to make the government listed to us as they have listened to the outcries of this video clip.
Without a good reputation we cannot attract foreign investors which will even further hurt the job crises and economy. The more people without jobs, the more crimes will be committed. Let’s always remember the difference between crime and hate crime….

I am sorry for having a direct response to a blog but for this part I feel I should:
============================================================
For the people making the judgment that all Caucasian South Africans are racist, please be careful, that is a very generalist statement and probably not even as general as what it is a minority. Let’s think about some reasons as to why a Caucasian South African may want to leave the country:
Jobs a re not easy to come by due to affirmative action or black economic empowerment or due to what is called PDIs (previously disadvantaged individuals)

May have been racist and would not like to stay in SA.

Fear of being brutalised, raped or killed

I am sure there are many more reasons than that, for examples, some may leave abroad for the simple fact of seeing the world. If you listened to a racist person and did not express your opinion to him, you led him/her to believe that you are perhaps in the same boat. Was it to keep the peace, is it similar to Peter’s denial are you a spectator, I don’t understand why you did not voice your opinion?

“It is a simple fact that every white South African I have met here in the United States, and I have met a few, was a racist. That's not a stereotype or an over-generalization; it's just a fact. Some of them said things to me, apparently assuming that I agreed with them as an American, that were shocking beyond belief.”

You may say that you are not stereotyping, but I think you have hit the stereotyping thing smack on the head…. Be careful mate, there is allot of non-racist people who want nothing more than peace, you don’t believe me…. Step out of your little cacoon and on pop on over to South Africa, then you may have an opinion, oh wait, you know what, even better, go make a difference….. Where are you now?
==============================================

A thorough investigation needs to be conducted on the recent incident in South Africa. In so far as it may not be good fall to hasty conclusions, the pepetrators of such acts should be severely punished and in a bid to prevent others from commiting semilar crimes.
Why will crime ,not riegn in South Africa where the wealth, the fertile land etc belongs to 4 miilion people while 50million others languish in poverty. That is unacceptable.
South Africa needs a Mugabe type of man to strike the balance.

Most Afrikaners still feel that they are superior to blacks. These students weren't born racist, they were taught by their parents and grew up in a community that has never let go of their racist beliefs.

Black South Africans still suffer from an inferiority complex due to the 345 years of colonialism and apartheid. Someone mentioned "dignity". Colonialism and apartheid robbed people of their dignity. It kept them poor and uneducated, with a massive inferiority complex.

Afrikaners always wanted the black masses to be poor and uneducated, not able to think for themselves. They succeeded in that aim. And now they want to turn around and say, "Look at these stupid blacks, don't they have any dignity?"

After the Anglo-Boer War, it took Afrikaners years to improve their economic situation and that's what black South Africans are trying to do after Apartheid - improve their situation.

The difference is, black South Africans have the benefit of history, not to repeat the actions of the previous regime. Ideally, there should be zero tolerance for any form of racism, whether black or white. It's a shame when both black and white South Africans resort to racist, discriminatory acts whether to assert themselves, or as a protectionist measure. Will we ever learn?

In light of CS's posting below, Africa has long way to go. Will the case of these students deter people from videoing their own crimes? Or will it merely make another person think about twice about the consequences of his or her actions beforehand?