Originally posted by: Skoorb
Not surprising. I have always found it just kind of weird that whites live in South Africa. I mean, it wasn't long ago they were literally the ruling class stepping on the Blacks. I imagine many are perfectly nice people at least now if not then. Something I've had a really hard time finding is "What it's like living in South Africa as a white person".
I've googled it before. I would like to know what it's like, how segregated are they? Are they often the victims of violence, do they feel welcome there, what circles do they run in, etc. Does anybody here know?
Here's a bit of real info in amongst the nonsense.
When I was there last I talked to a white B&B owner/ grape grower who moved to the Wine Country in the Western Cape. They had retired from pharma jobs in Cape Town and wanted to do something different.
There was little crime or violence there. Living there is like living in the SW US, much like Utah actually. There are some blacks who do feel anger towards whites, but most have moved on. The are the majority, and they have the power and growing prosperity. They are not so interested in wasting time on the whites bc it really doesn't matter. The ones who are are ones likely to be really poor an uneducated and angry, and they are a threat to everyone really. Far more blacks get robbed, killed and raped than whites.
She did understand and support blacks get AA rights, bc so much was done to hold them down. They were forbidden to attend higher education, and were kept dumb and poor. Whites are needed bc they are the ones who hold most of the skills, but this will change as time passes. She was worried about their son a bit who was finishing university. It was likely there would be an under qualified black in upper mgmt who was there just to fill quotas, but again, it takes time to rebuild the system. He will have to work harder than he would have a number of years ago, but he still has huge adv and opportunities. Basically, its sucks but its fair.
Another friend of ours, an white American from NE moved there 10 years ago and started her own business in Joburg. She employs many blacks, and has had to prove herself for being white and female, but she succeeded. She does live in a compound and have a security service (ie ADT), and
everyone who has money does. Inequity there is vast. ( btw. ADT there is not some BS mallcop who calls your house if an alarm goes. These fuckers are heavily armored paramilitary men w/ assault rifles who will kick some ass.) Again, this is Joburg. Most of the country is not like this.
Much of the problem comes from huge poverty levels, and the poor there are incredibly poor. (Our poor would be middle class in SA for the most part.) Millions of people have fled Zimabawe to SA as well, and they fill the shanty towns. There is where much of the crime is and its against anyone with anything worth stealing. I've seen estimates of 12M refugees from Zimb. in SA. SA has a pop of 45M. That would be like 80M Mexicans coming illegally to the US, but far more poor and for no jobs to be had here. Think of what that would do here.
In the end tho, SA has a lot of potential and opportunity and is the envy of much of Africa. They will do just fine w/o the f'ing Canadians, or the US for that matter. China, Europe and India are more than willing to go in, invest and reap the benefits.