white or non-white?

Finally visited the apartheid museum in Johannesburg over the weekend. I’ve wanted to visit it since I came here and finally made the long kombi ride. It was the best museum I’ve ever visited and feel I understand this part of the world a little bit better.

Upon arrival you get a ticket that reads with ‘white’ or ‘non-white’ depending on your skin colour. My friend who I was with has a Filipino background so she was given a ‘non-white’ ticket. When we went to enter the museum we had to use the entrance designated to us – white or non-white. It was very powerful. We had to spend the first part of the museum separated. I wasn’t sure if I’d see her again until after we had finished but luckily the segregation part was for a short time only.

I’ve wanted to talk about race for a while now but just can’t seem to. There is so much I want to say, so much I have observed but can’t quite seem to formulate my thoughts clearly. I feel the topic is taboo. Perhaps this is part of the racist ideology – keep people scared of talking about it? The lives and whites and blacks here are so different. When I try to talk about it with my white Swazi friends they don’t seem to think there is a problem. I question them about the obvious class differences, poverty levels and high numbers of blacks in low-skilled jobs. No body wants to talk about it or admit there is a problem. Maybe they don’t want to give up their cushy status.

I guess I’ve broken the subject now. Will try and clearly articulate what’s been going on in my head since I arrived.