June 16th is Youth Day, a national holiday in South Africa, and thus I was amazed to see over two hundred people, the majority of which being high school students, arrive for the opening of the God has Many Names exhibit at the District Six Museum. The museum staff had been expecting between fifty and one hundred, but they managed to fight through the original chaos to have a truly enlightening event. My job throughout was simply to document everything, and thus as I moved around taking photos I was basically a fly on the wall. I could hear ex-residents of District Six try to communicate what life was like during the apartheid to high school students, and hear their reactions.
The part that I want to focus on is the reaction of the high school students. These students listened and contributed with the discussion facilitators, and appeared to be truly fascinated by the older generation that was trying to help them understand what that era was like. As we brought everyone back together and Bill, our professor, spoke to the group, the overall attitude of the students towards post-apartheid South African society became clear. The students had a united belief that South Africa is still an unfair society. While this may seem obvious to anyone who has spent time in South Africa, it was incredible to see the unity among the students. As Bill discussed the similarities between the United States and South Africa, and the older generation urged the high school students to take action and define their own futures in South Africa, I could see genuine intent among the students. They seemed like a generation ready to act upon the inequalities they observe around them, but the real question is whether they can succeed. I can only hope they can, but I know that if their beliefs are shared throughout the country, then their solidarity is a very important first step.
In the United States, inequality is just as big an issue, but we have managed to make remarkably little progress in recent years. I really do believe that the United States can make significant progress to fight inequality, but it requires a generation of Americans who can not only acknowledge the issues around them, but are willing to fight them. As Bill said in his speech, it all starts with the young people of a country, but unfortunately there are too many Americans who believed that the civil rights movement fixed our issues and are happy to leave the system as is. I believe in the power of American democracy, but I also believe we need a generation of Americans who can think like the students who came to the District Six Museum on Youth Day to make a real difference in the battle against inequality.
