PCG Minimizing the Violence of Apartheid (2013)

After the death of Nelson Mandela, the man who did so much to bring to an end the racist system of Apartheid which had kept the black majority trodden underfoot, PCG made an article discussing those who try to imitate the boycott against Apartheid South Africa by calling for a boycott of the State of Israel. (Callum Wood, Sanctioning Israel: the Next South Africa?, December 17, 2013.)

Here is what this article has to say about Apartheid forcing the black majority to be lorded over by a numerically small white minority.

Apartheid officially became law in South Africa in 1948. Unrest flared up in the 1950s, but the idea of sanctions hadn’t started to take hold. In 1962, the UN called on members to “separately or collectively” break diplomatic relations with South Africa and begin trade embargoes. Multiple trade and arms embargoes ensued, including Resolution 181, which saw—with U.S. approval—the cessation of arms shipments to South Africa from Europe. This law became mandatory in 1977, largely as a result of the heavy-handed crackdown on protesters by police.

Wood writes of "the heavy-handed crackdown on protesters by police" within Apartheid South Africa. What a sanitized way Wood describes the deadly repression Apartheid caused.

Astonishingly Wood makes makes no mention in this article of how about 176 people were killed in 1976 during the Soweto uprising by the Apartheid regime's attempts to repress protests in Soweto by people who yearned to free from Apartheid. Somehow such frightful bloodshed is casually ignored in this article.

Also what about the widespread racial discrimination that the black majority were forced to endure? While so much of the world moved away from racial discrimination Apartheid South Africa insisted on imposing various racist measures against the black majority. Such racial discrimination was reason enough to sanction the Apartheid regime even if the mass killing in Soweto in 1976 had never occurred.

It is shocking that Wood and the editors of PCG should dare to ignore the racist oppression that the black majority in South Africa were forced to endure for so long. No mention is made in this article of the deadly violence that the Apartheid regime unleashed against the black majority to impose white supremacy.

If PCG's leaders should treat the violence of Apartheid in South Africa in such a way it should be no surprise that PCG's leaders today choose to harden their hearts at the African American protesters who protest alongside allies from the white majority against police violence and who yearn to live without fear of violence at the hands of those who are supposed to protect them.

If PCG's leaders can minimize the killing of 176 people in the Soweto uprising of 1976 as merely a "heavy-handed crackdown on protesters by police" then PCG's leaders will choose to harden their hearts at the current problem of African Americans enduring police brutality.

It is shameful that PCG's leaders should dare to minimize the horrors of such a racist system as Apartheid in this article. It is a terrible wrong against those who were victimized by that racist regime for so many years.

More on PCG's sympathy for Apartheid South Africa may be seen in this previous post.