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How can you relate the testimonials below with each other in the light of the hate discourses used in Europe, Africa and America?

REFLEXION UPON DISCOURSES OF HATE

Around 1960, black South Africans were being discriminated by whites due to their skin color. The Apartheid  System made people believe that black people were savages and dangerous. The movie "Goodbye Bafana", which tells the story of the relatioship between Nelson Mandela and his warder at the prision, shows a scene where before the black prisioners read their letter from their families, a group of policemen read them and cut down the suspicious phrases or the ones that could include a code or private information. Also, when the families had the chance to talk to prisioners, policemen listened carefully to the conversation and they did not allow them to talk in their native language. White people´s objective was to control the nation. Nelson Mandela was a black revolutionary that was put into jail because he wanted black and white people to have the same rights. As a result of this, he wrote his arguments in a document called "The Freedom Charter" together with the American National Congress (ANC)

Black women protesting for their rights. Britain, 1960

Situation in U.S.A in 2008

Due to The Crack of the Housing or The Biggest Aset Bubble in 2008, U.S.A went on a crisis causing an increseament in the prices of the houses and people were suffering a huge unemployment. Because of the anger they felt, people had the necessity to blame and the ones they blame were the immigrants. In the mids of 2016, the country had the presidential elections and the candidates were Donald Trump, Hilary Clinton and Mike Pince. One of Trump's offered proposals was to expelled those immigrants from U.S.A and as the town blame them for the Crack of the Housing in 2008, they voted for him and finally he became the president of one of the most powerful countries of the world.

Candidate Donald Trump speaks during an event at Trump SoHo Hotel in New York City on July 20, 2016

We can relate the testimonials by the idea that people from the Apartheid and U.S.A in 2008 had the necessity to blame a group of people for the difficulties the country was passing through, which were Racism to black people in South Africa in 1960 and the impact of the Presidential elections of U.S.A in 2016. In this case, the blame ones are Muslims, Latinos and black South Africans. 

Additionally, in both texts can be reflected that whites from South Africa in 1960 and people from U.S.A in 2016 were experimenting fear that the ones they blame could take their business or exterminate white people when their only goal was to have the same rights as the them.

In conclusion, despite both testimonials were written at different times and places, both refer to a group of a people they blame for the difficulties the country was passing through. Also, the two text show that people from both times were afraid that their "enemies" could take the power.

 

Testimonial 1

"Don't get me wrong, I want everyone to get along. And I don't want to sound racist. But they are coming into our country. If you ask me, that makes them racist. There is something going on with the Muslims and Latinos. There is a lot we don't know about. They have a game plan. They want my grandchild to work for them. They want all the business. I'm hoping he can do someting about it. We need someone to say no"

(American lady in Michigan justifying her voting for D. Trump. www.humansofnewyork.com)

Testimonial 2

"They don't want to share the country with us. They hate us! If they had it their way, they'd drive every single person into the sea. They´d leave us with nothing. Not even the clothes on our backs"

(Taken from the script of Goodbye Bafana" in the scene in which Gloria Greggory tries to justify the Apartheid system to her husband)

More than 6 in 10 Americans now favor allowing illegal immigrants to eventually become U.S. citizens, a major increase in support driven by a turnaround in Republicans’ opinions after the 2012 elections.

A child with her nanny at a national party in 1994. 

"THE PEOPLE ARE SO BEAUTIFUL! THAT'S ENOUGH OF THE COLONIAL TOURISM"

 

This is the title of SE,Smith's article about colonial tourism. In this article, the author gives its point of view about tourists and how "observers" are likely to see the place they visit. "When you are a white, socially powerful person travelling overseas and you're describing the people you meet in simplistic terms, you elide the reality of their lives and turn them into Disney sideshow attractions there for your entertainment, rather than human beings going about their daily lives." Here, Smith is stating how tourists behave in "the new land" they are. They just don´t care about who the person is, they elide their reality and describe them as "beautiful people". Also, the fact that tourists do not appreciate the history of the place they visit or the one of the people is a stark testimony to who writes the history, who dominates social attitudes, and who dictates how people interact with the world. Finally, the author closes with "The people are human beings. Not your playthings."

In my opinion, SE Smith made a good work with the article because what she talks about is what happens nowadays. People are not aware of the place they are visiting or the events that happened in the past. They are not aware neither of the people that live there. They treat them like "playthings" or objects to take photos with and I think that's an act of disrespect with them.

For example, in the last picture we can see that instead of showing the historical events, the biodiversity of people, food, animals and flora, they are only making propaganda to the beautiful sea, the sun, the lady with nice body and the beach. That is what SE Smith is taking about in the article.

 

References:

​Smith, SE. (2014, April 8). 'The people are so beautiful!' That's enough of the colonial tourism. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/08/people-beautiful colonial-tourism-travel

Photo:

[Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.colonialtours.com.do/images/portadanueva.jpg

Regarding to "Reflexion Upon Discourses Of Hate" and "The people are so beautiful that's enought of Colonial Tourism", we can establish the following relationship. Around 1960, black South Africans were being discriminated by whites due to their skin color as a result people made other believe that black people were savages and dangerous. On the other hand, at the moment when tourists talk about people of the place they visit in a disrespected way like "beautiful people", they elide the reality of their lives and turn them into Disney sideshow attractions there for your entertainment, rather than human beings going about their daily lives.

In some way, people from both moments (Apartheid and nowadays tourists) are discriminating and violing their rights of the other by their appareance, from were they come from, their culture and how the place they live is. They treat them like playthings or as if they had no feelings at the moment of taking photo with them or putting them into prision.

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