Comment by dredmorbius | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dredmorbius | Hacker News Reader

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"Apartheid" (literally: "the state of being apart") was a forced doctrine of legal racial separation, nominally "equal" but in reality anything but, with the black majority being hugely opressed, lasting from 1948 to 1990 / 1994 (officially at the former date, popularly when universal national elections were held on the latter).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid_in_South_Africa

Mandela fought this system along with many others through the ANC, the African National Congress. Some of its actions were violent, and the organization and its members were labeled as terrorists, though Mandela later disavowed violence.

He was freed in 1990, elected president of South Africa in 1994, and served until 1999. A man who went from spending 28 years in jail to leading the peaceful transition of his nation. His is one of the greatest stories of the 2nd half of the 20th century.

Listening to Obama speakin right now. "I'm not a saint, unless you consider a saint to be a sinner who keeps on trying."

NB: Obama himself was hugely guided and influenced by Nelson Mandela.

I don't think Obama can even be mentioned in the same breath as Mandela, tbh.

Two people who have been heads of state of their respective countries are Obama and Mandela. Seems mentionable to me.

Superficially, yes. But Mandela is a statesman. Obama is a mere politician.

It would be like comparing, say, Bush Sr with Winston Churchill.

Yeah they can: They are both the first black elected leader of their respective countries.

Yeah they can: They are both the first black elected leader of their respective countries.

Not in terms of worthiness. If Obama was exactly the same in every way but was 100% white, he never would have even made congressman let alone either term of presidency. He was pushed through on racism (non-white people voting blindly for him because the other guy was white), political correctness, the power of persuasive marketing (of lies) and the attitude of affirmative action.

Obama is no leader or unifier. Every other word out of his mouth is a lie. Mandela is worthy of credit for the skills he possessed. Obama is a giant social and traditional media, speech writers and teleprompters induced fraud.

> Not in terms of worthiness. Obama ... was pushed through on racism ... non-white people voting blindly

Subjective opinion is subjective, bordering on offensive.

You're not clearly biased, no.

> "Apartheid" (literally: "the state of being apart") was a forced doctrine of legal racial separation, nominally "equal"

I don't think it was even nominally equal until very late in the apartheid period (and that as an effort to mollify external criticism and reduce internal tension while maintaining effective white domination) when the Constitution of 1983 adopted the Tricameral Parliament which provided for representation (via separate legislative bodies that were responsible for each groups own affairs, and had to concur on common affairs -- with a council representing all three groups but with an overwhelming White majority empowered to resolve disagreements between the three chambers) for Coloureds and Indians, with both of those groups also having representation -- Blacks, of course, still didn't get anything in the South African government, because they were nominally citizens of the bantustans and not South Africa proper.

On equality, I'm not so sure of what I wrote above. I seem to recall having seen some early reporting (late 1950s / early 1960s) which suggested at least the pretense of equality. Could well be misremembering. TIME or National Geographic stick in my memory.

> leading the peaceful transition of his nation

This point deserves more expounding, which I'm not qualified to write. Apartheid was brutal, and the victims suddenly became the majority in a democracy. It's the sort of situation where you'd expect an eternal cycle of vengeance. But there wasn't one. There was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and probably other things, and then there was peace. There are few achievements in history to which this can be compared.

> "Apartheid" (literally: "the state of being apart") was a forced doctrine of legal racial separation, nominally "equal" but in reality anything but

I don't think apartheid ever pretended to be equal; that was the conceit of the US's similar but less extreme "Separate but Equal" policies.

I think "Segregation" is a better legitimate translation for Apartheid, but both terms are euphemistic.

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