Is there still hope to deconstruct the system or have its effects gone too deep to restore?
We recently had a film screening session where we watched 7Up, one in a series of documentaries that look at the lives of South African children every seven years from when they are 7 years old. Here we learn about the lives of 7-year-old South Africans from different backgrounds, racial and social groups. At the age of 7, these young people are a complete reflection of the societies they are part of, they speak truthfully and some see little (if at all) of the problems surrounding them.
Most of the black children in the documentary are from underprivileged backgrounds, born to be crippled and suppressed by the systems around them with minimal resources, yet with dreams. They dream of becoming rich, moving to the suburbs…basically, living the better ‘white life’. How they’d get there is a mystery, but they see these problems because they are exposed to them, they talk of what they need.
The white kids on the other hand seem to be having all the luxuries, they speak of what they have and what their parents provide for them and appear to be clueless about any issues in society because they are protected by white privilege. One of the kids, when asked who his friends in the farm were, mentioned the garden boy and went on to talk about how friendly he is “he plays rugby with me”. The child is unaware that all this is part of the garden boy’s duties, he is forced to wear the smile every day, do as the kid pleases, else he’ll find himself jobless. When asked why black students are not allowed at his school, he spoke freely and with excitement about how they beat any black kids they see in their school. This shows us what the norms of society used to be back then, black people were reduced to nothing, not worthy at all…yet capable of taking orders from “baas or madam” and getting the job done.
7Up was made in 1992, a time filled with a lot of political uncertainty in our country, so I found it quite frustrating to note that issues from then are still evident in our societies, they continue to recur 23 years post-apartheid. That makes me feel like we are not progressing as a country, we are stuck in a system that continues to perpetuate inequality, segregation, and more. Townships have remained underdeveloped, black children are still being born into and inherit poverty as it is extremely difficult for them to get access to resources.
What is this rainbow nation that we were born into and taught to believe in if there is still so much division in our country? Looking at society today, there are people that have had to work hard to earn whatever they possess today and there are those that have been born to inherit a system that grants them privileges and the most frustrating thing is that there are those of those people that don’t even want to acknowledge their unearned privilege. I believe if we are to deconstruct the system then we need those that are benefiting from it to give up their privileges, they need to address their ignorance and unwillingness to understand something so vivid.
If the issues that existed before 1994 are still evident in our societies today, with a belief that the past generations have been working hard to resolve these issues, then what should we be doing differently today to push for change? Who should we be directing our frustration to? Is there still hope to deconstruct the system or have its effects gone too deep to restore?