Adjusting to a new culture?

When reading any information about studying abroad there is always information about culture shock. It tells people going abroad to accept and respect the aspects of a new culture whether it be something that they see as positive or negative. So far I’ve started to do this whether it be being aware while crossing the street that the cars are coming from the opposite side of the street, pedestrians apparently don’t have the right away, food portions are smaller, getting used to using the Rand instead of dollars, the Afrikaans language, among other things. However there’s one aspect that I’m not really okay with just accepting: racism.

When coming to South Africa obviously I realized that race relations would be very different than what I was used to. I was aware that apartheid did not fully end until the early 90’s, so things would be very different. I’ve learned that since apartheid ended everyone gained political power and could vote in elections. This has resulted in the ANC, a predominantly black political party being in power since the mid-90’s. As much as they have tried to unite and bring equality to the country, it has been a difficult task. The gap in wealth distribution was, and still is, so huge that a majority of the black people are still poor, sick, and hungry, while the white people are doing okay. This leaves the black township at one side of Stellenbosch full of people living hungry with limited running water and electricity, while one the other side there are large nice houses for the white people. My service learning teacher, Grant, had let us in on a few interesting details about our school during class, telling us that Stellenbosch University is the least diverse college in South Africa and it was an extremely racist institution. The school does not outright discriminate against people and not accept black students, but they indirectly do it while being “proud of their culture.” Stellenbosch is an Africana university and about 80% of their classes are in Afrikaans. The only classes that aren’t are in the international department and the English literature department. This is a big controversy on campus because students want to be able to take their courses through the international office so they are in English instead of Afrikaans. This would then mean that the university is no longer an Africana institution. This is all well and good to preserve culture, but one of the biggest problems with this is that a majority of the black South African population doesn’t know Afrikaans and therefore are unable to attend the university. This power at the university is being used to assert some of the ruling power that the Africana people have left over from their years of ruling the nation.

For the first few days I thought that there just weren’t many black people in this city or area and that’s why I only see white people all the time because I hadn’t gotten a chance to venture off campus, but I was wrong. On Friday I went on a little excursion to get a cell phone and was looking for a store in one of the malls in town. While searching I was looking at all the store names to find the right place in this mall that was bustling with people. Once I stopped and looked around me, I realized I was the only white person out of the about 200 people doing their shopping that afternoon. This is when it really dawned on me that the area has black people, but it’s just the university that lacks them.

So what do I do about this? Obviously I am not okay accepting this racism and injustice, but I also don’t want to be disrespectful to the culture I am living in. Obviously I do not have the power to miraculously close the gap in wealth distribution, but am I powerless? I know that at least my service learning that I will be doing will help me to feel like I am somehow helping to close this gap, even if it is in the smallest way. I have also found that being polite and respectful while deal with people in the service industry that I have come across (which is almost completely black) sparks a very positive response, as if it is coming as a surprise. I know I will need to make more of an effort to get out of Stellenbosch to communities that are much more diverse. So is that all that I can do? That is a question I will continually ask myself, something that will constantly frustrate me, and be something that I will not be able to accept about this culture that I am living in. It will also be something that will make me think more about how my own culture is set up and ask myself if this is really so much different from the culture that I am used to. Why is this something that I never stop thinking about here, but something that I only think about sometimes in America?