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February 17, 2005
Some Accumulated Perceptions
On Wednesday nights, the entire group from HWS meets as a class for three hours. We have quite a few logistic things to work out in terms of group excursion times, and we spent most of last night's class talking over one another in essentially a completely chaotic and unproductive environment. Either this group will learn to work together within the time span of 3.5 months, or I will return to the United States very glad to be completely independent from 24 other students.
Later on in the evening, we split up into smaller groups and addressed some issues that the professors have noticed in terms of how people are perceiving cultural differences and (at least somewhat) integrating themselves into South African culture. Personally, I have remarked earlier how surprised I was that many South Africans seem either disinterested in or wary of me, and that I have made fewer South African friends than I had expected. Granted, it's only been two weeks since classes started, but I can easily see this trend continuing for a few months. Perhaps once I start to get involved in more things on campus, I will meet more people who want to talk to me about the differences between South Africa and the United States and help solidify some of the things I've been reading about in my textbooks.
Surprisingly, quite a few people last night mentioned how a certain group of people here get offended when they're referred to as "so-called Coloured". I don't know how many of you are familiar with race relations in South Africa, but during apartheid basically all the people who weren't classified as "white" or "black" were thrown into a category called "coloured". It's hard for me to imagine the context in which such conversation would arise, but apparently many of the students here at the University call themselves coloured, without any "so-called" or quotation marks. (For those of you who don't know this as well, the University of the Western Cape was founded to be a higher learning institution for "so-called Coloureds", and has recently been integrated since the end of apartheid in the 1990s.) It's interesting that we have been so educated by professors and textbooks to never refer to people as coloured without adding "so-called", although I don't forsee myself walking around and asking people in South Africa how they racially classify themselves...
The thing about "race" dynamics in South Africa is that they're not perfect, but there is an active nationwide awareness of the issues and constant political and private attention directed toward the amelioration of the situation. The United States is far beind South Africa in recognizing the discrimination based on a person's skin color and proposing viable solutions to the problem. South Africa is so not perfect in so many ways, but it's so great to be in a country where people are actively paying attention to a sensitive situation and not just sweeping a lot of it under the rug. So, if I don't find a lot of South Africans who want to be my friend, I can just back up and observe interactions that take place between the people around me. I sound a bit more like a sociologist than I'm comfortable with there...
Posted by rgutwin at February 17, 2005 03:18 AM
Comments
This is a most excellent post, Becca. Very interesting. Thank you. More posts like this, please!
Posted by: Diana at February 17, 2005 10:03 AM
Oh, and when you say
I have made fewer South African friends than I had expectedare you referring to a non-zero quantity? That would be exciting.
Posted by: Diana at February 17, 2005 10:15 AM
Well, I guess that would depend on what one classifies as a "friend"...
Posted by: Rebecca at February 17, 2005 10:21 AM
Your frank observations about life in South Africa are very refreshing. I appreciate the candor you share with us - keep it up.
My feeling is that we in America are so transfixed by issues of race, religion, sexual orientation (or even sex) that we mess with our own minds on the subject and wind up just worrying these things rather than doing anything about it. Please bring back some wisdom...we really need it.
Posted by: Paul Gutwin at February 17, 2005 09:40 PM
i think you will have opportunity to talk with people about race idenity issues - you just have to be comfortable with your questions and believe the risk of whatever is worth the gain in understanding. i remember while sitting in a waiting room in Berkeley watching a black mother working with her young daughter's hair. I was struck with how little i knew about what is common place in another's life! I felt kind of silly, but my desire to learn won out. I took opportunity to engage in conversation about little braids, girls sitting still for hours, washing, sleeping in braids...
I think it's good to think and ask questions - especially one on one and with the person (or people)most closely living the answers.
Posted by: mom at February 17, 2005 11:21 PM