I was born in 1968 and grew up in South Africa. In the 42 years before 1990, obscene men seized control of the government and violently enacted and enforced morally repugnant racist laws known collectively as apartheid. In the late 80s and into the 90s, when I was beginning to develop a sense of the country’s politics, I watched the news night after night and saw these leaders defend their actions and so carelessly spread one disgusting lie after another.

A key element of apartheid was that certain jobs were reserved exclusively for whites. Using the same arguments as slave owners over a century ago, the menial, unskilled and low-paying jobs were seen as appropriate for “lower people” such as blacks, coloureds and Indians. Jobs for blacks!

After 1994, I never thought I would have to listen to this racist nonsense again… and yet… and yet, in 2024(!), America tells us that illegal immigrants are crossing the border (“When Mexico sends its people, they don’t send their best. They don’t send you.”) and that these “not the best people” are taking the only jobs they can get… you know, black jobs. Ugh!

Many people voted for the apartheid government in election after election. We didn’t know who they were, but we knew what they were.

Frans Bicker Cararten

Park City