My wife and i spent a couple weeks in South Africa recently.  Apartheid ended 22 years ago and we experienced how race relations are progressing there today.  How do they compare with race relations in the U.S?

1.  In South Africa the majority of people are black or colored (mixed racial background) in contrast to the U.S.  As a result, whites interacted with blacks in official situations although the apartheid laws prevented “after hours” friendships and socializing.  In the U.S. many whites still don’t have much contact with blacks.  Race relations in South Africa were already more advanced with more understanding between the two groups before apartheid ended.  One of our white guides (a cinematographer)  told us a delightful story.  During apartheid, he had a black assistant who was forced to stay in bad hotels while the white person got a nice hotel.  To get around the law, the white guide had the assistant carry the camera case up to the white’s room.  The case contained the black person’s clothing and he was able to share the room overnight.  If anyone came to the room to check if the law was followed, the black man simply hid in the bathroom.
2. Apartheid was a system of laws that created separation and oppression.  Both blacks and whites emphasized the struggle was against the system, not blacks against whites.  That meant all races could work together to over-turn a system.  In contrast in the U.S. we, unfortunately, often pit whites against blacks—which makes cooperation and understanding more difficult in our race relations.
3. The townships were the poor areas, shantytowns, where the apartheid laws forced blacks to live.  They were really suburbs of Cape Town—which was starkly different.  What surprised me was the variety of poor and wealthy who still live in these suburbs.  In Langa, for instance, there was an area called “Beverly Hills.”  It contained larger houses, cars, and yards where the doctors, lawyers, teachers, and engineers lived.  Although these residents could afford to leave—they didn’t.
4. In our country, many people who have been surveyed think our race relations are getting worse.  In South America, I sensed optimism.  Everyone referred to the “new” South Africa (after apartheid) and how good the future was going to be.  Maybe the best example was our middle-aged black guide who complained his college-aged kids were so integrated with whites and colored people they couldn’t understand the oppression and struggle their parents had experienced.  They thought dad was nuts!  That’s progress and hope for race relations in South Africa.