Orania, a white Afrikaner enclave in South Africa, remains divided by its oppressive hierarchy 30 years post-apartheid. Paralympian Ade Adepitan becomes the first black person to stay in Orania for a documentary but is ousted from a church after attempting to engage with the congregation. The town symbolizes both remnants of past racist ideologies and a potential representation of global racism.
Black journalist @AdeAdepitan visits Orania a white Afrikaner town in South Africa. A context is that black political leader @Julius_S_Malema advocates for the genocidal "kill the boer". Ade is playing the Apartheid, racist card. Ade, I can only empathise with the Afrikaner.… https://t.co/OLAFRnxNNy
A curious piece, in which the Afrikaner-only town of Orania is simultaneously a pathetic vestigial remnant of now-defunct racist ideology, and also a sinister harbinger of all-encompassing global racist ideology https://t.co/gX5Yb1JZEN https://t.co/5glxvvZL3g
"Tribalism is inescapable"? It's human nature to want to connect to other humans, but for most of our existence, that was 20-40 people, not in nations or races. Belonging to the tribe of humanity (my tribe) is no more or less natural than any of the others we have created. https://t.co/S4f6Pgxrmd
"Tribalism is inescapable..." -- No, it isn't. The story of human progress can't be adequately told without underscoring the many ways humans have become less tribal + more collaborative. Absent my intervention, my kids might engage in theft/violence at every opportunity. But… https://t.co/JLigJefs4G
As the graph shows, the majority of whites still have nearly all-white social networks. It doesn't upset the vast majority of local bonds as they're already apparent. You could easily argue national identity is a "superficial" bond, yet millions of people have died for it. https://t.co/2FefftI3Bt https://t.co/2Zka3xOf6X
It’s not a what-if, it’s already a reality in modern America. Racialist ideology isn’t something that “extends beyond” the immediate social network, it opposes those local bonds and demands that its adherents replace them with its own superficial bonds built on outgroup paranoia… https://t.co/iEyUYHJBLU
"People may prefer their own kind, but what if they had a Latin friend-of-a-friend?" People throughout history have held group identities that extends past their immediate social network. People still pledge allegiance to the American flag despite having non-American friends of… https://t.co/c1Q3fz1CkM
Yet, Americans tend to divide along strongly racial lines when it comes to friends and family https://t.co/o4XjGmtDVo https://t.co/9LYLTQe6W2
Inside South Africa's 'whites only' town: Paralympian Ade Adepitan becomes first black person to stay in remote Afrikaners community of Orania for Channel 4 documentary - but gets thrown out of church after trying to speak with congregation https://t.co/hJJmDiF9d7 https://t.co/oNt6RwmE1A
Tribalism is inescapable, and often those who deny their tribalism, who pretend to belong to "tribe of humanity," are the most intolerant and most blinkered by partiality. For they spread the imperial ideology of cosmopolitanism, an ideology that permits no dissent.
✍️ "Thirty years after the end of apartheid, the tiny enclave of Orania in South Africa is still traumatised by its own oppressive hierarchy," writes @AdeAdepitan https://t.co/iJV3OHmhSL