Coming Back Part 2: Race and Culture

OK, so Part 1 was rather light-hearted and this one really shouldn't be seen to be anymore serious. Race is often a sensitive topic. One thing that we noticed in South Africa was that race was not as serious of a topic as it is in the USA. For me, it seems like there's an idea that if we as Americans discuss race we are opening ourselves up to a trap where we might have to come face to face with our own biases and prejudices and might find that ourselves wanting in racial and cultural enlightenment. We have heard indicators that in Gauteng Provence (Pretoria/Johannesburg) that race conscienceness is diminishing with time. However, people often enjoyed discussions of race and culture with us when we lived in the rural areas and we were very conscience of our race, being the only white people.

Coming back to America, this was a bit of a source of trepidation. Peace Corps gives you tips, training and suggestions to integrate into a local culture. We learned that we must greet and enquire as to a person's well-being before getting to the point. We learned the secret handshakes, (hold your right forearm with you left hand and shake, then grasp thumbs then shake again). We also learned the secret greetings, (Sawubona Bhuti! Ninjani? Siyaphila nati.). This was useful. Even when we were in an urban area we could instantly distinguish ourselves as cool white people by dropping a few words in Zulu or waving hello with both hands.

When we flew back to the US we started in Johannesburg and landed in Atlanta. This is an amazing transition to make because ironically, the racial demographic of the two places is very similar. In both airports you will find the overwhelming majority of travelers are white and the overwhelming majority of employees working in the airport are black. Upon arriving in Atlanta, I had an urge to greet every black employee in Zulu and felt a little strange when they didn't enquire about my well-being before getting to the point. Race and culture are related but they are not the same thing. When I wished a black TSA employee a good day he kind of chuckled at me like that didn't happen from every person to walk through his scanner. While Peace Corps taught me how to distinguish myself as a racially enlightened person in South Africa, the experience didn't give me a lot of tips for the American South at all.

Spending a few days in the Pacific Northwest, I am reminded of the every growing latino or hispanic population. I recall experiences in southern California where people would express resentment about this growing population despite the obvious benefits to the southern California economy. When we think of South Africa, we so often find ourselves considering things through the lens of the history of apartheid and racial segregation which led to widespread, senseless loss of human life and dignity. However, despite our own history and despite current trends, we do not use such a lens to discuss the United States. In the west, we have a rapidly growing immigrant population with a different race and culture than what has long been dominant in the area. Certainly there isn't a segregation de jure, but there is a segregation de facto and sometimes a palpable tension amongst the two groups. So we find ourselves wondering if greeting and saying thank you in Spanish wouldn't help to bridge things a little. Certainly many have overcome frustration, embarrassment and criticism to learn English. Why shouldn't we all learn enough Spanish to have a polite conversation enquiring as to someone's well-being?

If there's one thing that I learned in South Africa, it's that what works in a suburban area of the US will often fail to work in rural SA. Certainly I would be naive to assume that the opposite was not true. But I think that America must stop avoiding frank and open discussions about the different races and cultures that make up this nation or we will forever be blinded to our own biases and prejudices and that will be the biggest trap for us at all. We cannot see the ways in which we consider one group better than another, those ways are bound to become systematically enshrined and history is doomed to repeat itself.