Escaping the black box

A 50 year old woman that was abused at the age of 10, will never forget that moment when her father robbed her of her dignity. Leaving her with deep wounds that she wishes time will heal, yet cringes at the memory thereof….. She let it control her so much that she missed the opportunity to experience the magic of love and giving a man the opportunity to treat her like a queen. She died, unloved, burying resentment and scars of the past with her.

Just like that woman, are we allowing South Africa to slowly die, unloved, with unleashed potential, the country alive with possibility, because we are letting the past become a walking shadow everyday through our racist thinking?

Am I insensitive to the fact that my forefathers had been economically and socially suppressed so a particular race can be empowered?
Am I insensitive to communities being torn apart by the group areas act, where those who are homeless are subjected to living in tin homes 14 years later?
How can anyone be insensitive to the suffering of another?

We cannot deny the footprints of Apartheid that still exist today, but are we going to allow it to haunt us for generations to come and stagnate? Looking back, rather than pressing forward to a better South Africa for ALL, red, yellow, blue, white, black?

Is unemployment, lack of education, crime, insufficient health facilities and HIV/AIDS (but to mention a few), challenges related to a particular colour of people or does it to relate to humanity?

The call I make to you is to escape the black box thinking that I am owed something because of the past, subjecting others to our prejudices because they the same colour as the past oppressors. Issues of colour seem to be menial to the blaring problems set before us today. Even apartheid was not overcome through using the same weapon of racism, but through people working together in unity.

What is the colour of this country we want to reflect? Is it this of pigmentation or of a rainbow nation united to fight the conquerable giants of our time?

Cheryl-Lynn Freeman
PS: Inspired by Obama’s speech (A More Perfect Union) on race
(check it out on YOUTUBE, it will transform your thinking)