Wednesday, January 5, 2022

Unfortunate Past

 

Wow! I found my Mom's discharge papers from the South African hospital in which I was born - it distinctly says 'For Europeans' on the front cover, no ifs and or buts. This was a hospital run by the Salvation Army, too! Their current statement on racism reads "The Salvation Army believes that racism is fundamentally incompatible with Christianity" - perhaps back in South Africa in the sixties, apartheid wasn't about racism? Or they had no choice if they wanted to operate in S.A.? Or they've changed their stance over the years? Curious ...



I know that the Catholic school I attended, run by nuns, taught equality, compassion, love and acceptance, but their buildings and grounds were maintained and run by black servants, who lived in separate, austere and inferior quarters attached to an outbuilding, with basic utilities only. Something was “... rotten in the state of Denmark,” for sure - how do you preach one philosophy and yet live another?

Was their reasoning that they could work from within to help make non-European lives better?





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