Racial separation - reaction to film Cry Freedom

RACIAL SEPARATION

Few weeks ago, I saw a very particular film : Cry freedom, a Sir Richard Attenborough film. It is based on real life characters, principally Steve Biko (played by Denzel Washington) and a white South African editor, Donald Woods (played by Kevin Kline). The film fulfills two main aspects: firstly, it tells a story of the relationship between Steve Biko (a banned black leader, victim of the local political system), and Donald Woods. Secondly, it show us the dominant political ideology of "white South Africa" as it appeared at the period of 1975. In my opinion, it is rather a documentary film. It shows, through a story of friendship between Woods and Biko, the cruelty of apartheid in just a couple of hours. I think lot of people didn't know about the situation in South Africa, nor did I. A couple years ago, I saw a scene from another film, where a black man wanted to buy an air ticket to South Africa, but the seller objected that it wasn't a good idea. I didn't understand that scene, but now I do.

Racism has existed for centuries. It occurs all over the world, can happen to anyone and will probably, and unfortunately, always exist. Its main purpose is to promote hate towards ethnic groups. It isn't just a conflict between black and white skinned people, even though it is most often the case today.

Racism often spreads in violence and fear. Many times, we can learn from television news that racial groups (skinheads for example) are exerting violence on innocent individuals. And even if there are some "spectators" nearby, they don't call for the police or other help. This can be qualified like some sort of hidden racism: people do not express their dislike of minorities directly, do not show a feeling that could be called racist.
Lets take an example from South Africa. There are 5 million white people (while 20 million Africans) who occupy 87% of the whole land (while 13% for Africans), share 80% of national income (20% for ...), have one doctor for 400 citizens (one for 44000 ...), annual estimated money for education per pupil of $700 ($50), they earn 14 times more cash and have lower taxes than Africans, who are the native population of South Africa. I think it is the worst and most explicit state of racism in the world. Violence has cursed the people for hundreds of years. Even if the situation is improving, traces of racial separation era will never be eliminated.

In the USA for example, in the 1930's Mississippi was a terrible place for black Americans. Slavery had long been abolished but white people still treated blacks like slaves.

Racism is a worldwide problem. It denies all basic human liberties and must be eradicated, even if it's a very difficult task. We all must try to find solutions to it. But challenging people not to be racist (for example by persuading them, using advertising, to accept different ethnics in their lives), isn't it just another sign we are racist?


REM: Text opravovala nasa profka (americanka), je 100% correct.