Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Inequality: Does Race Still Matter in South Africa


In South Africa, the South African Airways recently advertised to train cadet pilots. Thinking that it would be equal,  the trade union put in two applications with the same background and experience, except one person was white and the other was black. It took a turn when the white person’s application was rejected and the black person’s was accepted. This caused a massive disruption in which  a spokeswoman commented that the system of discrimination had no place in South Africa. Only 15% of SAA’s workers are black, mixed, and Indians so this showed as a need to come in and change how it has been. The emphasis should not be on who gets the job, it should be on inequality and class issues being that South Africa is one of the two most unequal societies in the world. Of course, it cannot be race. In South Africa, there is a large poverty stricken population who is willing to do what is necessary to strive So, for it to seem like the South African Blacks will target the “rich white” is insane. They will target the rich in general or anyone who may be doing better than what they have. Basically, this article is saying that the underlying issue are poverty, lack of education, and and inequality. The lack of education is devastating. South Africa is the worst performer in math and sciences and textbooks didn’t even get delivered to the children this year. The South African Political Analyst who wrote this is saying that they can protest and do all they want about getting blacks into power, but in the end race doesn’t really matter.  Even if the people wanted to get blacks into power, they (people) would have to get an education first because you can’t lead others without a direct path of your own.  There is a potential downfall ahead if some South Africans don’t take care of these three main issues. I think that they really should not focus on this the race and try to make it a bigger issue than what it is. They need to put a bigger emphasis on the failing education and high poverty rates which is making their country this way. This is a prime example of inequality between social classes because it's causing many people to struggle and a middle class is nowhere to be found. It's either extremely rich or poor.

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1 comment:

  1. Good work, overall. Your analysis section could be little bit longer, and little more critical/analytical. You could apply this situation to other countries as well, to show that inequality is truly global.

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