Kaffir Boy Journal On Racial Relations #1

Wow Pretoria is like a dream, like there is no reality at all. But the thing is it is reality but doesn’t seem real. It was like there were barely anything called apartheid it this part of South Africa. Blacks interacted with whites and whites interacted with blacks. I liked this part of South Africa. Every time I visited this place, I didn’t feel like there was separation anywhere. It was comfortable to be here. Is only Alexandra was the same as this place. Since I’ve been playing tennis, I’ve been able to go to places in Pretoria where there were tennis tournaments against whites and blacks. It was interesting to watch. Arthur Ashe played against a white guy and crushed him. It was nice to look up to Ashe because unlike the other black American, Ashe is actually realizing and making the effort to help stop Apartheid. Even though Ashe is confident when walking through the white areas without fear, and white girl admiring him, he still makes the effort to do something about the apartheid. I also admire people like him. He inspires me to go and tell the world about what goes on in the Ghetto. I doubt the white people know what is actually going on. I also doubt that they will really know and make a difference anytime soon no matter if Arthur Ashe announces it in his speech. But it’s always good to try anyway because we never know what will happen. Maybe if I tell my mother to go and pray to her and the white man’s God to help the blacks in the ghetto because my mother’s prayers seem to be getting answered so maybe it just might work. While I was at the tournaments, I talked with white people like we’ve been talking like I would talk to my black friends in the ghetto. Guess what’s even better, the guy who is showing me some tennis skills is white and we talk like he is my best friend. I don’t even call him baas. It feels good to feel like there is no such thing as apartheid when I visit the ranch. But when I go back to Alexandra, it’s like I was in a dream the whole time and there is Apartheid everywhere. It kills me deeply that different places in South Africa there are friendly whites then you come here then there are mean whites who care nothing about us blacks. If only I could take my mother, sisters, and brother with me to Pretoria, but that is a risky thing because the bus ride there is like a nightmare. The buses are extremely crowded, people sit on the roof and get crushed and die or they stick out through the window and also die. Just taking my family on this bus is just scary and risky. Anyway I just hope I can go to America and tell about the life style here so that a difference could be made.