My Life Growing up White during Apartheid in South Africa
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Serving a Black man in a restaurant I was about seventeen and decided I wanted a summer job. Being a vegetarian, I decided to apply for a job at Irma’s Vegetarian Restaurant. Irma was different, she was a tough no nonsense white women who made everything from scratch in her restaurant. I can still taste the amazing bread she made, and remember the food being so good that eating dinner there was payment enough. Irma told us that she had black friends, and that if any of them came into her restaurant we were to serve them. Well as you can guess a young black man and his date came into the restaurant to eat. Yep, I was the waiter and excited. I worried how this was going to turn out. Walking up to the table I sensed that he was very uncomfortable, and suddenly everything was reversed. I, a young white male was serving a black man. You may say so what, but back then it was something extremely exciting, and terrifying at the same time. I approached the table and said,…….
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
This book is a short collection of memories about being white and living in South Africa during Apartheid. I wrote this book for the reader to easily understand what it was like to live in this environment.
It is not a history lesson, but some personal experiences that I went through living in South Africa at the time. Living through apartheid I never even realized that it even existed, because we were brought up to believe that it was normal. Life was paradise for me and hell for others! Many of us did not know or care, and even if we did try to change the system, it would have resulted in prison or death.
We believed that changing apartheid would have caused the country to fall into the hands of the communists, and many white people were fearful that black rule would have destroyed South Africa and their lives.
The other side of the coin is that I can’t comprehend what the lives of most blacks was like, which was excruciatingly difficult, something that I didn‘t personally experience.
Our history books never taught us anything good about blacks. I can’t remember ever learning anything positive that blacks did. What I did learn was that they were lazy, uneducated, dangerous, and drank a lot.
“Stay away from them, and if they bother you call the police.”
There were serious injustices in South Africa, and many black people suffered under the Apartheid Regime.
About the Author
Philip was born and raised in South Africa. He grew up not having any social interaction with blacks as a child, or as a teenager because of Apartheid. He is also Jewish and experienced a great deal of anti-Semitism which affected him profoundly. After high school he was drafted into the armed forces and forced to fight in a war for the Apartheid Regime. Philip saw many terrible and tragic events that affected him deeply. He also goes through some of the most extraordinary events that engulfed him during his military service which eventually caused him to leave the country.