Solidarity

I am in disbelief that my first week of classes is over already. It was absolutely amazing. In my history class we are learning about how the forced migrant labour system in South Africa in the early 1900s basically messed it up for life and truly set the stage for apartheid. Basically they only allocated 8% of the land to Black people and if you didn’t live on that land you had to move there (so it became VERY overcrowded, dirty, impoverished, etc.) or you were forced to go work on White farms for really low wages. So they couldn’t subsistence farm or sharecrop anymore – they were completely dependent on Whites for these wages, and the farms monopolized the business so they couldn’t even go from company to company to compare wages becaus there was no competition. Then they had “passes” reminiscent of slavery in the U.S. where they couldn’t go anywhere without permission of Whites, so they didn’t even have the ability to look for jobs or try to find a better life for their family. It was so heartbreaking to hear about, and this was before apartheid was even officially instated… I think when we get to that part of the class I am pretty much just going to be mad for the rest of the semester, because I left class yesterday really upset.

Classes are great, though, even though learning about this stuff tends to make me really mad. I’m so glad to be hear and to be gaining a new, more global perspective. I look at the Ellie from two weeks ago and then I look at myself now and I can see that already I’ve changed in a big way. If you had tried to talk to me about international issues before I came here, I would really not be interested. At all. I was very much one of those people arguing, “How can you ignore a homeless man down the street in DC/Detroit, but send your money overseas to help such-and-such people?” And I still feel that giving internationally but not locally can be somewhat of a cop-out for some people who don’t want to face the reality of poverty in the U.S. However, I no longer group everyone into that category, because I have now seen first-hand how the issues we are facing in the U.S. – poverty, unemployment, unequal education, and the racism that lies just beneath the surface of each of these problems – are exactly the same here in South Africa and in countless other countries, but even MORE magnified because apartheid was so recent. How can I look at these kids who are living in a shack with who knows how many family members, just trying to survive, let alone get an education, and say that they are less important than the kids I mentor back in DC? Now that I have met them and seen their struggles, I feel so ignorant for trying to brush off their issues simply because they weren’t happening in my country. I am no longer able to pick-and-choose my issues. The people here are already a part of me.

This sense of connectedness sunk in even more the other day, because the news was on at Tawanda’s flat and they were talking about the Zimbabwe. (In a sentence for those who don’t know, people are fleeing Zimbabwe because of the political turmoil and many refugees are coming to South Africa, but many South Africans don’t like this and have recently committed xenophobic attacks against them.) The people calling in to the news station were saying the most ignorant things, saying things like “The Zimbabweans should just go back home and fix their country,” and I could see how upset Tawanda was getting (he is from Zim). And I realized then that the situation – not its specific circumstances, but the emotions behind it – is so similar to debates over immigration here in the U.S. There is so much ignorance and underlying racism in the arguments of many people, and no matter what side of the debate you’re on, you have to understand that these are human beings who are just trying to do what is best for their family, and we have to treat them as such. Obviously the situation is more dire in Zimbabwe, so I don’t mean to put the two issues on the same level, but I am only saying that the comparison has truly made me realize that we are all grappling with the same problems, even at an international level.

Two weeks ago, I never gave much of this a second thought. Being here is giving me a global mind, and I am so thankful for that. It is overwhelming to realize how much needs to change, because just dealing with problems in the U.S. is crazy enough! But I have to remind myself that it’s the little things that count, and add up, so I just have to keep doing what I can to make these situations better.