5/24/10

The presentation given by our second lecturer today, Don Foster, concretely explained that post-apartheid South Africa has a long way to go before reaching reconciliation. Up until this point I have gotten the sense that, although the country might not actually be reconciled, most of the people feel like they were getting close. As Professor Keasley mentioned to me once, South Africa is a very ambitious country. This ambition has, up until today’s lecture, seemed to be embodied by the positive attitudes and mindset of the South Africa People. But after this lecture, it became clear that end yet to come.

Foster laid out a number of divisions made in South African society (racialization, class, gender, and age). He also pointed out major problem areas in the country such as HIV/AIDS, murder rate, and unemployment rate. He referred to these items in the context of social inequality of the Colored and Asian populations and even more so in the African populations. Foster presented statistics that gave insight into the racial tensions between the different races and explained that a lot of these tensions could be resolved by employing the contact hypothesis. Although a lot of people are willing to make contact, a lot of other people are not. Up until this point, I have gotten the sense that almost all of South Africa (at least 80%) was willing to put in the effort to reconcile. This impression, however, was proven false by Foster’s statistics. So, reconciliation, at least through contact, is not being achieved at a rate I had assumed to be very fast. His last slide listed the items necessary to truly reach reconciliation (or for the contact hypothesis to work): human security, political culture, crosscutting political relationships, dialogue, and historical confrontation. Without these components, reconciliation cannot be achieved.

Foster also, at the beginning of the lecture, reemphasized a point that Professor Keasley has made over and over again, that South Africa and America have had a very similar history; a lot of the things that happened in South Africa have also happened in the United States. Because of this, Foster’s lecture laid out exactly what needs to be in place for our own society to achieve reconciliation; it made me think about the elements we do and do not have which are necessary for successful reconciliation. It seems that most of the items Foster listed have not been achieved in the American context.

I won’t go through every item and explain why I feel it is not present in the States but I will list a few just to give an example. Foster mentioned that there needed to be a high degree of human security, two being physical and economical. Last year I lived on the Hill and when all the attacks on females were happening (starting at the very end of October and stretching on for months) I stopped feeling safe at night. I worked at Mamacitas on the Hill and I remember the police coming in to talk to the kitchen staff. They told me they were going around and talking to all of the Mexican staff that worked on the Hill (an action that could only further a racial divide).

Economically, we all know how uncomfortable many Americans are in their present financial situation. People are getting laid off left and right and financial security is always on everybody’s mind. Low income associates with crime, poor education, and poor health. If people are in living in fear of these things, they will do what they can to avoid them. Therefore, they will be thinking of their own needs more than the needs of others and reconciliation will not be a priority, getting the job instead of the next guy will be the highest on the list.

In regards to political culture, Foster mentioned that there must be trust in the political leadership. In America, our leader’s motivations and decisions are constantly being called into question. Living in Boulder, we hear a lot about how untrustworthy people felt President Bush was. Without faith in political leaders, the government cannot be a reliable source for initiating or supporting reconciliation. If people always think that there is an ulterior motive furthering the aim of a political leader, trust and reconciliation will never come to be. Clearly, the necessities are not in place to achieve reconciliation in our American society.

After reflecting on the American situation lit up by Foster, I think that I will be more sensitive to shifts or changes in our society, led by either general opinion or legislatively, which reflect the elements needed to achieve reconciliation in our own society.