small confrontations

We went to a club last night and I was talking to some white South Africans outside. One of them began to talk about how there were “good blacks” and “bad blacks,” but most are bad. When pressed to elaborate, he said that the bad blacks steal and mug and have worse morals. When I asked him something along the lines of, “don’t you think there are historical and social contexts that have led to that kind of survival behavior that is more tied to poverty than to their inherited race”, he quickly dismissed it with “no, it’s because they’re black.”

It’s not that I didn’t think this kind of opinion existed, even in America, but in the States that kind of racism is considered so politically incorrect that you will be hard-pressed to find such thoughts spoken out loud (at least in New York). But in urban Cape Town, this man voiced this opinion openly--moreover--with the assumption that there was a good chance I’d agree. Outside of reiterating my thoughts for a bit, I realized there really wasn’t much I could say or do. Maybe I’m just liberally biased, but I’ve found people who think in such ways rarely use rational thought in coming to their belief systems, and thus rational thought isn’t much of a combatant. After becoming pretty frustrated, I excused myself from the conversation and plan on avoiding this club in the future. Unfortunately, however, I’m nervous that if I maintain such a practice I’ll have a minefield of places all over the city to avoid.