Reminder ⬇️ apartheid was (mostly) affirmative action for under-qualified Afrikaner men who filled bureaucracies so they could achieve middle class prosperity. Achieved as beneficiaries of state repression on a massive scale. That’s where Melon Husk grew up 🧐 - ThreadSky

audieklotz.bsky.social • 5 days ago

Reminder ⬇️ apartheid was (mostly) affirmative action for under-qualified Afrikaner men who filled bureaucracies so they could achieve middle class prosperity. Achieved as beneficiaries of state repression on a massive scale. That’s where Melon Husk grew up 🧐

Reposted from Jenn Budd

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abusesurvivorcoach.bsky.social•4 days ago

When the Soviet Union collapsed, the Apartheid government could no longer brandish the rooi gevaar (the red danger) as a weapon, and apartheid had to end.

audieklotz.bsky.social•4 days ago

It’s a lot more complicated than that

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801486036/norms-in-international-relations/#bookTabs=1

abusesurvivorcoach.bsky.social•3 days ago

I know that, but it was part of it. When the Berlin Wall fell, it felt like a massive release of breath and the "excuse" or "worry" about the rooi gevaar was suddenly like mist disappearing in the morning sun.

abusesurvivorcoach.bsky.social•3 days ago

I'm talking from the perspective of white South Africans, BTW. Not the political class, but the regular people. We'd been told for years that the government couldn't allow power sharing because the Soviet Union would take over, and suddenly the Soviet Union wasn't a thing. The boogie man was gone.

audieklotz.bsky.social•3 days ago

Thanks for clarifying your perspective! For sure, threat of communism justified a lot, including the eponymous Suppression of Communism Act (banning, deaths in detention, etc). There was also the African chaos trope, epitomized by Congo/ Zaire => intersecting (swart + rooi) gevaars

truth-is-freedom.bsky.social•4 days ago

you can take the boy out apartheid, but you can't take the apartheid out of the boy.

beckys1313.bsky.social•4 days ago

tiredgammy.bsky.social•4 days ago

📌

2terrierterror.bsky.social•4 days ago

The same Boer Bavarians that would flee Europe after WW 1 & 2 benefited from Apartheid in South Africa. No where is safe from their exploitation of other people.

audieklotz.bsky.social•4 days ago

Longer and complex history between Germany and Afrikaners/ Boers even before WW1… and that’s without delving into South West Africa / Namibia…

2terrierterror.bsky.social•4 days ago

I found the series 'Guns, germs and steel', very informative about the colonization of Africa and the Boers. The link between German citizens that were most likely actually members of the party, but not punished, instead they were allowed to set of communities all over the World. And here we are now

audieklotz.bsky.social•4 days ago

I rely on my own research, which included reading a bunch of colonial era sources not referenced in the book

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/migration-and-national-identity-in-south-africa-18602010/8BD1E83AB5F0B790F7C1F4848330A9CC

2terrierterror.bsky.social•4 days ago

What is your take on the odd attacks on the South African government now by the current US administration?

usmanbakayoko.bsky.social•4 days ago

First time, one person, @audieklotz.bsky.social, gives correctly what was the primary goal of Apartheid. It was to help Afrikaaners who were mostly poor. It was welfare for Afrikaaners.

trump-is-a-virus.bsky.social•4 days ago

I think there's a larger power at work, who's funding this Wisconsin right wing supreme court pick, who's running it?

bostonandrew.bsky.social•4 days ago

And I’m guessing most anti-Tesla protesters are pro-Palestinian too

audieklotz.bsky.social•4 days ago

Don’t leap to conclusions, people are made about DOGE

bostonandrew.bsky.social•4 days ago

Well I hope they are lol

nctwadumela.bsky.social•4 days ago

Perfect!

jennbudd.bsky.social•5 days ago

I don’t think I’ve ever heard it framed like that. 🤯

audieklotz.bsky.social•5 days ago

In addition to massive deportation, imprisonment, outright murder… they razed neighborhoods, forcibly displaced residents to far-away places, and then constructed sterile middle class housing. Recommend District 6 museum in Cape Town:

https://www.districtsix.co.za

dshillis.bsky.social•4 days ago

Weird, it's almost like he bought his own echo chamber and added sound amplifiers to it to make sure the outside noise didn't have an effect on his reality.

msmargit.bsky.social•4 days ago

Thank you.

wbg163.bsky.social•4 days ago

So you’re saying it was South Africa’s DEI.

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