Source: Sunshine Seeds / Getty
In today’s episode of Anti-Blackness is a Global Phenomenon, it appears that there are white people in South Africa who are still practicing apartheid just as there are still white people in the U.S. trying to make Jim Crow great again.
Also, apparently, racism doesn’t take a day off for the holidays.
According to Times Live, Free State police are investigating an assault case that took place on Christmas day and is alleged to have been racially motivated.
From Times Live:
A video clip, shared on social media, captured part of the incident at Maselspoort Resort and Conference Centre, on the banks of the Modder River about 23km outside Bloemfontein.
The footage depicted white males ordering a teenager out of the water, then hitting or shoving him back in, grabbing a child by the throat and pulling his hair — as the fracas escalates and the youngsters are manhandled.
https://twitter.com/LebohangBokako/status/1607239554318372865
The father of the boys in the video told SABC news his sons told him they were being blocked from entering the pool because the white men assumed they weren’t guests at the resort, which they were.
“As we were relaxing, the boys came and told us that they are being prevented from using the pool by a group of white adult males,” he said. “They said they were told by the men that the pool is only reserved for people who are booked here [at the resort]. We then went to the pool to intervene and told the gentlemen that we are also booked here and not day visitors. So we thought the issue was resolved but were shocked to hear that they were attacked after we left.”
Apparently, another global phenomenon includes white people who suffer from a pathological inability to mind their own business. Why would it be on these men, who presumably aren’t employees, to police who come into the pool area whether the Black kids were guests or not? And it’s not as if they had reason to assume the Black kids weren’t guests, other than, well, you know.
Lastly, if it’s true that even after being told the Black teens were guests at the resort, the white men still tried to force them out, then it’s clear the issue was never whether or not they were guests. This is just a classic case of racist white people who don’t want Black people swimming in the same pool as them. Simple and plain.
“On arrival members found the groups already dispersed and were approached by a parent of one of the victims who alleged that his two teenage boys aged 18 and 13 were assaulted by a group of white males over the use of a swimming pool,” Police spokesperson Brig Makhele Motantsi reported. “The suspects who are all white males, as seen on the video circulating, were warned to appear in court on a date to be set by the Bloemfontein magistrate’s court.”
Meanwhile, President Cyril Ramaphosa responded to the incident by saying racism has no place in South Africa, that it should be condemned by all who reside there and that those who commit racist crimes should suffer the appropriate consequences.
“Our constitution means exactly what it says when it declares that South Africa—and that means all of South Africa—belongs to all who live in it. As black and white South Africans, we should be united in condemning all manifestations of racism and attempts to explain or defend such crimes. Racism is not a problem to be fought by black South Africans only,” he said. “We must defend our continuing national mission of ridding our society of the divisions and the hurts of our past.
“We must also be united in ridding our society of the violence we see in the videos of the incident at the Free State resort, whether such violence comes with racism or not.
“It is deplorable that adults dealing with teenagers resort to violence with such disturbing ease, hurting people physically and offending provisions in our Bill of Rights around security of the person, including the right to dignity and being free of violence,” Ramaphosa continued. “Under the rule of law, we must let investigations take their course but under the rule of law we can and must also declare that racism has no place in our society and racists have no place to hide.”
SEE ALSO:
OP-ED: When It Comes To Book Bans, America Could Learn From Apartheid South Africa
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