Racism

I was spending the day with my Aunty Anne, when I accidentally fell into conversation with a racist. She was the owner of a biltong shop in a mall north of Johannesburg, and seemed very kind and considerate when I first entered the store. But once she found out my family had immigrated to Canada, her attitude changed. She weighed my 100 grams of biltong and told me how right it was for my parents to move us away from this nation. She believed the entire country was going to the dogs in government, and that most of them had nothing between their ears. With a rather alarming vehemence, she spoke of black people being barbaric, of not knowing how to do anything, and how she was convinced Apartheid was the best thing that happened to this country.
The money was on the counter, the bag of biltong held limply in my hand. My stomach was churning; I was ready to rush outside and be sick. It was one thing to hear of people who think like this--it's a completely different situation to encounter them one on one. She rambled on about Eugene Terrablanche having the right idea about how to deal with "those people", as I edged my way to the door. Thankfully, another customer walked in, and I was able to excuse myself from the hate speech being thrown at me.
Who did this woman think she was, that she could stand there in her upmarket neighbourhood and criticize fellow citizens of a different race? I feared not only her hatred, but also the continued existence of her life. Surely, her poisonous words would come back to violently haunt her.
16 years have passed since Nelson Mandela became president, and yet racism continues to wreak havoc within this country. I wonder if we stopped believing that "those people" were barbaric or stupid and started treating them just the same as anyone else, would the problems still be there? If the government cracked down on corruption, and began to tackle the overwhelming poverty in rural and urban areas, would there still be violent attacks on innocent people? If South Africa stopped focusing on impressing the rest of the world, and began work on the education of the country's future leaders, could peace be on the horizon?
If only South Africa were able to leave the past behind and work on the present, there might actually be some hope for the future.