Redditor provides counter-argument to documentary about South Africa's "Reverse Apartheid"

[u/allthisjusttocomment]

/r/Documentaries/comments/856hzq/south_africa_a_reversed_apartheid_2018_a/dvvwfcy/?context=3

[u/killerofsheep]

As a somewhat objective white person, I'll try give my opinion as to the reason.

What have white people (as a demographic/community) done to rectify the injustices of the past? It appears to most that the continued wealth inequality is reflective of white people maintaining their economic power at the continued expense of black people. Of course there is the rise in black wealth, and that the ANC is dealing with immense corruption.. yet this is not sufficient to appease millions of people living in poverty.

Poverty is almost exclusively a black and coloured issue, and near non-existant among white people. This dichotomy creates a tension that very few wish to deal with. Black people feel it is a result of Apartheid, and white people feel as if Apartheid is gone and its the ANC's fault.

So, poverty is a result of Apartheid and white people, and whites aren't doing enough/anything to fix that.

[u/Pm_me_de_steam_codes → u/killerofsheep]

What about all the white people that were born in a democratic South Africa?

The major problem I see is people selectively showing statistics in a way that encourages their agenda, if you look at the number of white people, vs the number of black people living in poverty there's a huge difference, but transfer those numbers into percentages and the gap is all of a sudden not that big. In my honest opinion, a lot of what's wrong with this country is MASSIVE population boom in the black demographic, and a mundane corrupt government that were never even capable of running the country without the population boom.

What I am trying to say, even if you take every cent every white person has in South Africa, and directly transfer it to the same amount of black people that are living in poverty, you're still going to sit with 23 million black people living in poverty. How is this going to solve anything?

Out of 45 million black people in our country, 28 million is living in poverty, that leaves 17 million above the poverty line, leading a lower class to upper class life, if anyone is capable of helping out the poverty stricken population, it surely makes sense that their own demographic will be more capable?

Even though these sort of things are never as black on white as many people try to make it out to be, there are a lot of factors to take into consideration, and it is not fair to try and blame it all on one group entirely.

[u/killerofsheep → u/Pm_me_de_steam_codes]

Who were those people born to? How did their grandparents benefit? Generational wealth favours white people to a far greater extent than it does blacks. Those born after 1994 enjoy much of the same privileges as their parents, albeit in a less directly guarded atmosphere. A big reason in the increase in farm attacks due to the population being more evenly protected.

I agree that the population boom is a strain on the country, yet this becomes a way to supplement that lack of generational wealth. People don't have money to live into their old age as a result of being deprived pre-1994, and the corruption of the current government has exacerbated the problem.

You cannot use a 1=1 function for wealth transfer. Households are a more useful metric, and this way we can compare; income, consumption patterns, assets, size of family etc. Your theoretical is a near impossi or scenario. And it discounts that most black people in SA actually don't want a violent social upheaval. But that's an inevitability if the wealth inequality continues.

"Looking after your own demographic" is a backwards and racist way of thinking, and the reason many black people feel discontented about continued white prosperity at their expense.

[u/Pm_me_de_steam_codes → u/killerofsheep]

Well, I for one, at 22, although I am white, I do not come from generational wealth, I will inherit nothing and I am not bitter about it. I have been self employed since I was 18, and by using my brain I have been able to live a debt free life until now. Although I am not at all where I want to be, at least I can get by, a lot more than many people can say.

Where did I say everyone should look after their own demographic? I said, it makes a lot more sense that black people should chip in on the poverty problem, since there's a lot more of them not in the problem their fellow countrymen are in, than there are white people in the country, from all classes and groups.

It baffles me, in this day and age where the government sits with the ability to help those living in poverty, but chooses not to, chooses to loot it all, chooses to employ people that are not capable to do their jobs, and then tries to blame it on a minority when the people they were supposed to help looks at them in disbelief.

Like I said in my first comment, there are too many factors in the epidemic our country sits in to simply blame it on one party/problem or the other, entirely.

[u/sandawana → u/Pm_me_de_steam_codes]

As a black person I can tell you that we do. The is something called "Black tax". Which basically means the moment you get out of the poverty line your family and relatives look up to you to prop them up. My parents for example have provided for tertiary education for at least 10 of my relatives. All the first generation who get of poverty where I am from does the same and has to build a house for their parents because of the shitty condition. Personally I have never been poor but I have seen to many poor people in my life.

Because of black tax most of the first generation black people to get of poverty never had the opportunity to acquire wealth in their life. I have never been poor but I never blame a poor person for being poor. Being poor affects and limits the way someone thinks. Escaping poverty is more extraordinary than people think.

[u/Pm_me_de_steam_codes → u/sandawana]

Well that's an awesome thing to do for your relatives. The more educated people we can get in this country, the more jobs will be created and less crime will be the result. A win-win for everyone.