South Africa Watching Election Campaign in Primitive Racist Country

Things have really come full circle when South Africa views the United States as a bunch of dimwitted rednecks.

South Africans of all races are hoping Obama will be the next president. 70% of South Africans are in favor of Obama, according to an international Reader’s Digest poll.

South Africa, like most countries, has lost respect for the U.S. because of its ongoing occupation of Iraq. And like most of the world, they blame the global financial meltdown on America’s Wall Street casino.

Christian Barr is a white South African IT worker who served in the military during the last throes of Apartheid. He said “Obama will be better for us in Africa. I am concerned about the conservative Americans – the Midwest states, they might vote for McCain. Whatever happens, though, Africans must come up with their own inventive ways to benefit from the U.S.”

Lucky Mathye, a black police reservist, said “America looks like a worldwide boss. They want all the power in the world and they don’t want to share it. Maybe Obama will be a peacemaker.”

There's one sharp contrast between the two countries: In the United States, race is the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about. Instead, everyone uses coded words and phrases. These code words are clearly understood by the intended audience, but if the speaker is accused of racism, s/he can fall back on “what, I didn’t mean anything by that, all I said was _____________________”

In South Africa, with the clear divisions between races and the violent upheavals of the last few decades, race is openly talked about by everybody. As the author (Hamilton Wende) says: “The divisions between black and white have been such an undeniable truth… that people here prefer to acknowledge their existence rather than to pretend that they don’t exist.”

cross-posted at Bring It On!