There is little doubt that the world is going through a critical nexus in history even more consequential than the Reformation. While, the existence of the planet itself is front and center with the ravages of climate change; the internet and artificial intelligence have upset our worldly order, the devastating pandemic has almost brought travel to a standstill and on the political front threats to democracy abound, as populism establishes itself in countries that once claimed to be democratic. The factor behind the latter scary phenomenon is race, class or caste. Identity has become front and center as the white race feel threatened through out the world.
SOUTH AFRICA, THE USA, THE BRITISH, THE INDIGENOUS NATIVES AND RACE
While the past century witnessed the most powerful manifestation of racial hatred in Nazi Germany, Jay H. Ell would like to focus on the USA and South Africa, which has just witnessed the passing of their last great white leader, later reformist, Nobel Laureate FW de Klerk. The USA, on the other hand, is once again witnessing the dark cloud of racism overhanging its beleaguered constitution. The latter is considered the basis of modern democracy. It is a fascinating fact that the acclaimed American jurist, the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, rated only one constitution more encompassing of liberal Western values - the South African post apartheid constitution, which in turn is facing its challenges.
Both South Africa the United States had similar beginnings in the seventeenth century being colonized by whites who considered themselves the superior race. In America the indigenous natives were largely exterminated while in South Africa the wars never resulted in nearly the same genocide. This resulted in the indigenous peoples of South Africa outnumbering the whites by a ratio of five to one. A ratio that still exists.
America imported slaves from Western Africa whose descendants represent a sizable minority today. Added to the mix are a large number of South American immigrants, who are the largest minority and finally those of Asian descent who are the fastest growing minority. The outcome of all of this is that it is projected by the year 2042 the whites would be no longer be in the majority.
Both countries had their hassles with the British colonial power. America dumped the British early on their history. The long drawn out war was proceeded by Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence upon which the Constitution was based and the great American idea was predicated. South Africa to this day has links with Britain via the British Commonwealth. South Africa had its war with Britain which pitted, in effect, the two white groups against one another. The indigenous natives were never part of that struggle in either country.
Both nations' white groups fought segregation and fostered it. In America that battle has been ongoing with the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, Civil Rights and now Trumpism all playing a role in the ding dong battle of equality versus domination. In South Africa with no discernible body of slave descendants, the history of segregation was different.
A VERY VERY SHORT SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY
Arising out of the ashes of the turn of the twentieth century war between the South African Afrikaners and the British were two groups the Afrikaner nationalists and the English who had made South Africa their home. The latter were more liberal. The Afrikaner Nationalists argued that the English "liberals" wanted the blacks as their allies to drown the Afrikaner aspirations. Ironically in the Jim Crow era of the twentieth century the South African culture although segregationist was indeed more liberal than the violent murderous Jim Crow adherents. South Arica had some sort of token franchise for those who were not white. This token stood out versus the little help the American constitutional fifteenth amendment, was to the Southern Black Americans. Nor, in South Africa, was there the organized violence that Southern American negroes were subject to.
In 1948, In South Africa the white Afrikaner Nationalist segregationist party gained power with a minority of the white votes. A number of their luminaries had supported Germany in WWII, a few having been interned. From the get - go it was an undoing of those few laws that gave any rights to those of color as well as enshrining segregationist laws akin to those that were on the books in the Southern States of America. All legislation was designed to keep the whites as ubermensch and pure. The laws promulgated were the ban on mixed marriages and sex across the color line, the group areas act defining where one could live resulting in forced relocations of populations, the Separate Education Act and on and on. All this was accompanied by repressive legislation to maintain order
In the early 1960’s naked racism in South Africa had to have a justification and as America was about to see the beginning of the lifting of Jim Crow, South Africa adopted as its rationale - “Separate But Equal”. The latter had been enshrined into law by the American Supreme Court in 1896 and provided the legal basis for the segregationists in the South. The docket was entitled “Plessy v Ferguson”.
PLESSY V FERGUSON
In 1892 a former slave Homer Plessy boarded a a train and sat in a “Whites Only” coach having purchased a first class ticket. He was challenging the Louisiana Separate Car Act. The latter act provided for “Separate but equal” facilities. Plessy fought his subsequent conviction through the Louisiana court systems and finally to the Supreme Court. The defendant named was John Ferguson the original judge who tried the case in Louisiana. The basis of Plessy’s appeal was the Fourteenth Amendment which stated, “No State shall enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of laws” Plessy’s counsel argued that the Louisiana law “implied the inferiority of the black man”.
The Supreme Court in a seven to one decision ruled inter alia “… laws requiring racial separation were within the State’s power,,,, the Fourteenth Amendment was undoubtedly to enforce equality of the two races before the law, but in the nature of things, it could not have intended to abolish distinctions based on color or to enforce social, as distinguished from political equality….”. Thus the infamous “Separate but Equal” rationalization was enshrined and for six decades legitimized racial discrimination in the South. Only Justice Harlan dissented. The dissenting Judge proclaimed that, “…. The law implied that the black person was inferior……Everyone knows the statute in question had its origin in the purpose, not so much to exclude white people from railroad cars occupied by blacks, as to exclude colored people from coaches occupied or assigned by white persons…..”. .
Little did the seven supporting justices know that their names would go down in infamy. Not only would their law justify racial discrimination it gave license to mobs to enact violence of a gruesome nature, be the basis of discussions of the Nuremberg Laws and South African apartheid or Separate Development which apartheid was euphemistically labelled.
THE 1950’S TO THE 1960’S
The 1950’s saw the reversal of these segregationist trends in several instances in the USA and the justification of them in South Africa. President Harry Truman kicked it off in 1948 by ending segregation in the military. In 1954 the Supreme Court in a landmark case in the up and down battle for the right for “All Men to be created equal and endowed with inalienable rights….” slammed segregation in schools. In the case Brown v The Board of Education they ruled “separate but equal” was “inherently unequal… even if they had equal facilities”. The unanimous court decisions authored by Chief Justice Warren, maintained further that, “To Separate black children from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be undone”. In 1957 President Eisenhower sent troops to Little Rock Arkansas to enforce the rights of the Negro to attend a white School and passed the first Civil Rights law in 1957. This was the forerunner of the all encompassing civil rights legislation of the 1960’s.
However it should not amaze anyone that in this period Jim Crow was still very much alive and kicking in the Southern States of America. The two countries differ in that the violence in South Africa was mainly from the Government where in the States it was by both law enforcement and the white mob.
In South Africa over the same time period with the rise to power of the Nationalist Party Government there was an indecent hurry to add to the discrimination that already existed. In a systematic fashion they proceeded through every life event and segregated it. Starting in 1949 with the Mixed Marriages act and a year later the defining Population Registration Act that went to Reich like methods to define which race someone belonged to. There were laws on Separate Amenities which included public transport, education, domicile, work, controlling each of the non white races from mulatos, known as Coloreds, to Asians to the black Africans. Political parties weren’t able to be integrated either.
In order to eliminate what limited representation the non white races had in parliament required a two thirds majority which they never had. To overcome the latter they increased the members of the nominated Senate Chamber so the combined legislative bodies had the necessary majority to overcome that hurdle. The Extension of Universities Act saw to it that they would be no doubt as to the control of every sphere in South Africa by the white man. Needless to say this evoked massive opposition and to control this was a succession of laws including “The Suppression of Communism Act” where the government defined Communism! The notorious Treason Trial which rounded up leaders of all opposition groups and included Nelson Mandela as well lasted from 1956 till 1961. All were found Not Guilty by the standard then, which was the common law
THE 1960’S TO THE 1970’S
America went gang busters. This was the era of Martin Luther King and LBJ. The Civil Rights Movement which had its genesis in 1954, when Rosa Parks refused to sit at the back of a bus, only saw real results in the sixties. The Freedom Riders tested a Supreme Court decision that ruled segregated transport terminals unconstitutional and were beaten up for their efforts. This then involved the then Attorney General Bobby Kennedy in the struggle. Following JFK’S assassination LBJ rammed through comprehensive Civil Rights Legislation that touched on voting, employment and Federal facilities. Lest there be any doubt as to the right to vote, the comprehensive Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 and the Supreme Court subsequently upheld the violations to this law. To cap it all the Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968. This whole period was met by police violence especially in Selma Alabama on the march to Washington. There were three assassinations, the two key Black Leaders Malcolm X and Martin Luther King as well as Bobby Kennedy which were indicative of the violent efforts to retain the status quo.
South Africa, with a vengeance, turned in the opposite direction overseen by an ideologue Hendrik Verwoerd who claimed that apartheid was really Separate Development - a grotesque interpretation of Plessy. Verwoerd had been in the forefront of a march to prevent Jewish immigrants fleeing Germany gaining entry. During the WWII he had peddled Nazi propaganda as an editor of an Afrikaner newspaper, “Die Vaderland”.
Verwoerd maintained that the Blacks belonged to different tribes and they all had separate homelands within South African borders that he would ultimately give nationhood too. They were foreign laborers in White South Africa. They all had to have work permits that were enforced via stringent Pass Laws. This lead to three million black South Africans being incarcerated and then shipped to territories most of whom had never seen in their lives. Opposition was suppressed even more as legislation became more and more disregarding of the rule of law. The detention without trial legislation allowed opposition leaders to be rounded up and placed in solitary confinement with no habeas corpus first for ninety days then a hundred and eighty days. In 1976 the first “independent nation” the Transkei was born to be followed by two others. They were all run by puppets and were totally dependent on “White” South Africa.
Nelson Mandela formed the militant wing of the African National Congress in 1961 as every effort to obtain rights peacefully was rebuffed by the Government. Peaceful protest then civil disobedience such as marches and burning of their passes landed leaders in jail. Mandela became the figurehead of the resistance till he and his co freedom fighters were eventually rounded up. It was touch and go whether Mandela would be sentenced to death for treason instead he was sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island. He served twenty seven years and exerted incredible influence from jail growing in stature by the day.
In 1972 FW de Klerk entered parliament continuing a long line of familial involvement in Afrikaner nationalist politics. His grandfather was charged with treason by the British, his father was a high ranking cabinet mnister and his uncle one of the early Nationalist Prime Ministers. On the American Continent an ambitious young man, Donald Trump, took over his father’s property business and in 1971 he started his Trump Organization.
THE 1990’S ONWARD
In the USA the growth and power of the African American proceeded apace, While discrimination exists to this day, the fact that in 2008 an African American was elected to be President for two consecutive terms and a woman of color is the current Vice President bears witness to the progress. The response to this was naked racism with a vengeance led by Donald Trump and the Republican Party which he subsequently took over.
As matters now stand at the moment the political issue is whether America is going to remain a democracy or become an autocracy where the whites are the chosen race. It has to be sticking in Trump’s craw that an African American is leading a committee that is ripping through his cover up of his attempted coup. However Trump’s influence remains as America armed to the teeth is hovering on the brink of losing its democracy.
The influence of the Supreme Court would once again be in evidence. Chief Justice Robert’s has to have insight that his legacy is going to rival that of Chief Justice Melville Fuller of Plessy notoriety. Surreptitiously he has paved the way for voter suppression which is directed at minorities. In a five to four decision Robert’s Court ruled that political gerrymandering of voter districts was beyond the jurisdiction of the court. By a similar majority his court ruled that election campaigns could have unlimited donations as money was equivalent to free speech. In the latter infamous case it was also declared that corporations were people. Once again with a five to four majority in the most egregious docket of them all - Shelby v Holder, the Robert’s Court gutted the 1965 Civil Rights Voting Act. The latter required that certain named states and locales needed Federal preclearance before changing their voting laws. The three constitutional interpretations have paved the way for the Republican Party, which had by now morphed into the Trump Old Party, potential take over starting in 2022 through voter suppression of the minorities.
In the same period South Africa broke out of its racist rut. Out of the blue FW de Klerk who had been elected from the right wing of the Nationalist Party announced the release of Mandela, the repeal of the racist legislation and unbanning of black opposition parties. Anyone living in South Africa at the time this decision was astounded while appreciating the sheer guts and leadership of the move. He then persuaded whites, in a referendum, to sanction a non racial South Africa. In the years that followed a new constitution was hammered out which like the American counterpart has faced its challenges. South Africa had nine years of corrupt leadership following Mandela and his successor, Mbeki’s, departure.
The South African Constitutional Court has by and large carried out the framers’ intent, recently having jailed the venal former President for contempt of court. The vision formulated in the nineties has had more than a hiccough, however a framer of the Constitution, Cyril Ramaphosa has taken over the reigns. South Africa too faces its challenges but at least it hasn’t had hoards of white militia storming parliament.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
Both the USA and SA face challenges. Democracies are brittle and history has shown they can be taken over by minorities. Constitutions are only pieces of paper and they require the goodwill and leadership to be fulfilled. As Mandela’s autobiography’s title indicates it is “A Long Walk To Freedom”
FW de Klerk, in a video released posthumously, finally unequivocally apologized for his support of apartheid or “Separate Development as I preferred to call it”. He begged South Africans to live according to their new constitution.
The descendants of the White Ferguson and African American Plessy families joined together to have Homer Plessy posthumously pardoned for his 1892 “crime”. The Governor of Louisiana duly obliged. Meanwhile Michael Flynn, Trump’s pardoned national security advisor, has called for one nation, (guess which one), with one religion!
The committee investigating the January 6 coup attempting to turn America into a white racist autocracy is on a fast track to expose Trump and his treasonous cabal as American democracy once again hangs in the balance.
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