Politically Incorrect

After watching a documentary produced by CNN on Islamophobia in America, I was unwittingly reminded of the dark days of apartheid in my home country. I recalled a specific incident when I was working as a network technician in one of the branches of a leading bank. I was behind the bullet proof window separating the teller from the customers when a black man was standing in line waiting his turn and minding his own business. Close to him was an unkempt white lady probably in her 50’s who would generally have been classified as Jerry Springer material had she been living in the US.

Through some mishap, the black man’s arm brushed against this woman sending her into an absolutely frenzied state hurling the most vile and abusive language at this black man who just stood there and watched, along with everyone else including me, in absolute amazement. The stunned silence in the banking hall didn’t dissuade this woman at all. Her ignorant venom just kept spewing out as if she was possessed with no control whatsoever over her emotional state. Such blind hatred was the result of generations of brainwashing by an elitist white regime that violently oppressed the non-white majority of the country because they believed that the bible said they should.

The only difference I see between them and the Islamaphobes today is that it didn’t take generations of brainwashing or divine inspiration but simply a single despicable event the perpetrators of which have never been subjected to a fair trial, nor have the outcomes of official investigations been revealed. Yet the same blind rage and hatred that existed in apartheid South Africa still exists in a populace that refuse to see the truth of their own leaders. The only chilling conclusion I can draw from this is that if they choose not to see the error of their own ways willingly, they may have to succumb to the same kind of pain and agony that South Africa experienced before the darkness of apartheid was finally lifted.