Berkley Center

As one would naturally assume, a large part of the study abroad experience in South Africa is to broaden one’s understanding of the issues of racial inequality in the unique context such a country provides. As an American Studies student, a major that unfortunately has a relative lack of black enrollment within the program, immersion into a culture where I am the minority is particularly enriching.

It has been two weeks since my arrival, and already I feel I have experienced the issue of race more extensively than ever before. I am lucky enough to live with my RA, another University of Cape Town student from the northern region of South Africa. As a result, whenever I want to ask his opinion on racial observations I have made, I always have someone happy and willing to elaborate on at least one perspective of the many that exist in Cape Town. Almost always, he surprises me with the openness and honesty of his answers. It seems that in South Africa the population is a lot more willing and eager to address racial issues. During orientation week, the orientation leaders would laugh at our awkward American way of approaching such topics. At home there almost always lies a cloud of tension over conversation that turns towards race. Often it feels as if we would rather ignore the issue completely than address it out loud. In Cape Town, however, there is a refreshing desire to address it directly. Famous South African comedians joke about it, cab drivers brag about it, and flat-mates share drinks over it. Freedom is fresh and apartheid is still tangible. As a result the population, both white and black, feels that continuing the discussion constitutes as “doing their part” to uphold their proud first generations of freedom.

While such outlooks have been incredibly valuable to my experience so far, I have also found that some of the most stimulating of insights into Cape Town’s racial history have come from some of the most surprising sources.

For example, an Asian University of Cape Town student I met talked about how, since his arrival, he had noticed how university staff and students would excitedly stop him explaining how they had never actually met someone of Asian origin before. His status as a minority was at an even steeper gradient than the whites to blacks, yet the nature of that difference was completely different from the relationship between whites and blacks. The Asian student was often greeted with welcome and intrigue, whereas the white students are almost always assumed to be white South Africans and hence largely ignored despite being a significant minority. I’ve realized that the fact that different minorities are treated in different ways is very much a traditional aspect of South African community that naturally accompanied its history wrought in inequality.

On another afternoon, a group of study abroad students and I went to an upscale restaurant/lounge on the beach. As we sat there I noticed something that really hit home the freshness of the racial equality in South Africa, and also how remnants of apartheid still remain. Every single guest was white (save for one or two study abroad students in my group) and every single staff member was black. That is, save for the one white woman working at the front of the restaurant. From our table we could look across the entire restaurant and feel like we had been transported back to the period of apartheid. I had never before experienced such a distinct racial division before. It just so happened that I needed to speak to the manager about a table situation. I automatically went up to the white woman, assuming she was the floor manager at the time. I quickly realized how I had just slipped into the assumption that the white staff worker was in charge when she corrected me and called over her manager, a black man. I had just assumed a socioeconomic hierarchy of the white staff member over the black staff members. It was at this point that I feel I learnt my biggest lesson of the trip so far: the weakest perception of South Africa was the one I held.

In order for me to truly learn from the various racial perspectives around me I must first recognize weaknesses of my own.