From the ugly days
It’s still 1962. Nothing has changed. White men still assault Black teenage boys for using the “whites only” pool.
A violent attack by a group of white men on two Black teenagers at a resort pool in South Africa on Christmas Day has sparked widespread outrage, reviving images from the ugly days of apartheid and serving as a stinging reminder of the country’s unresolved racial tensions.
We get that a lot here, too. Ahmaud Arbery was murdered for running in a “white neighborhood.”
Cellphone footage of the assault — which the teenagers said started when they were told the pool was for “white people only” — spread widely on social media. It showed scenes that could have been from decades ago, when apartheid-era laws restricted South Africa’s Black majority from using public facilities designated for white people.
A video clip shows one man delivering an open-hand slap to the face of one Black teenager, another graying white man casually holding a cigarette as he tugs the hair of the other Black youth, and one of the men wrapping the taller youth in a head lock and pulling him into the pool, seemingly trying to submerge the teenager’s head underwater.
The boys are brothers and they and their parents were staying at the resort hotel, so they were just as entitled to use the pool as the pasty men.
On Wednesday, the police announced they had arrested and charged three white men: Johan Nel, 33, and Jan Stephanus van der Westhuizen, 47, who appeared in court on assault charges; and a third suspect, 48, whose name was not released and who is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday on a charge of attempted murder. None of the suspects or their lawyers could immediately be reached for comment.
I suppose the third is the one who tried to drown the kid.
At least the men were arrested? My question is how strongly this mirrors the situation we often see in the US, where the presence of cell-phone footage is the only reason for officials being forced to act.
Indeed. That’s what I meant by mentioning Aubry – we do often see this situation in the US. We too have a loathsome history.
Big difference here is that it’s a black majority country run by black people without apartheid in place. These stupid white men may be bold as brass but it’s just a very different situation than it was in the past.
I had never met as many white South Africans in my life as I did in my 11 years living and working in New Zealand. I thought I had met racism in Australia, but with one exception, these South Africans were the nastiest racists I had ever encountered.
They were exceptionally bitter because they’d had to leave “their own country” to avoid being murdered by random blacks, and they were afraid they’d be left penniless and their assets confiscated. No self-awareness at all. Even in peaceful New Zealand, where police on patrol are unarmed*, they live behind high fences with large, noisy dogs.
*It was two unarmed officers who brought Brenton Tarrant’s rampage to an end.
Rev, while NZ police are not typically carrying firearms they do have them available in lock boxes in vehicles. In this case the two officers had been attending anti terrorist training in a disused hospital nearby and so had firearms and other gear with them. They had pistols drawn when arresting the murderer.
But yes, I agree with your comments about SA immigrants to NZ. I’ve met too many who are wildly racist to feel it has been a good thing for us on the whole.