Racial Tensions In South Africa Essay

Humanity has a thirst for power. It’s been proven time after time throughout history. One of those many occurences being the colonization of the people in South Africa. In the 1870s, the British began to colonize South Africa. They brought many things including disease, weapons, and the most disastrous of all, their ignorant beliefs. They believed that they were superior in every way and began to treat the people of South Africa unfairly. They eventually created apartheid - a series of laws that separated people because of their race. This created a racial tension amongst the people of South Africa. A tension that is still ongoing to this very day despite the termination of apartheid. As a result of Apartheid, the racial tension in South Africa …show more content…
In an article writing about Apartheid, HISTORY says, “Under apartheid, nonwhite South Africans (a majority of the population) would be forced to live in separate areas from whites and use separate public facilities, and contact between the two groups would be limited.”(HISTORY). The black South Africans, along with other minorities, were discriminated against. They received substandard hospitals, schools, etc. They were treated poorly because white South Africans felt that they were entitled to better accommodations. 23 years later and that still holds to be true despite the end of Apartheid. In an article written about Orania, a city in South Africa, CNN writer says, “Orania, you might have guessed, is Afrikaner-only. And by extension, whites-only.”(CNN). Black South Africans aren’t allowed to live in this city, they are excluded. It has been quite a long time since the end of apartheid but many people still seem to have the same mindset as before. White South Africans still view themselves as being superior, while the minorities of South Africa simply want what’s rightfully theirs, equality. They are clashing with one another contributing to the increase of racial tension in South Africa. A tension that began long ago but that is still ongoing to this very …show more content…
That it’s nonexistent or that it is slowly going away. They may say that racial tensions in South Africa are no longer existent since Nelson Mandela put in place laws that made racism and discrimination illegal in South Africa (CNN). That these laws deter people from treating others unjust solely because of their race. That South Africa is better and that every race gets along with one another, showing no signs of racial tension whatsoever. This isn’t the case. The racial tension in South Africa is growing, and that is largely because the ineffectiveness of the government. On January 2012, the president of South Africa was caught singing, “We are going to shoot them with the machine gun, they are going to run/You are a Boer, we are going to hit them, and you are going to run/shoot the Boer…” (Frontpagemag). Those that say there is no racial tension in South Africa are naive. The president of South Africa is approving the killing of white South Africans. The president is meant to resolve issues not provoke them, nor endorse murder. All this time I’ve mentioned how white South Africans contribute to the raise of racial tension, but it is not entirely them. In an article written by a member of Front Page Mag, they claim, “It is estimated that at least 3000 Boers have been killed.” (Frontpagemag). Half a century ago the killing of a black South African was considered a tragedy and would be on the