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I don't think this comparison holds up. There's a not-so-fine-line between co-operating with a racist government for scraps of power, as these ostensible leader
by ycombinete 9y ago
I don't think this comparison holds up. There's a not-so-fine-line between co-operating with a racist government for scraps of power, as these ostensible leaders did; and trying to communicate with, and understand individuals.
- buyx 9y agoIt should be noted that the isolation of apartheid South Africa became almost unbearable on an individual level, and it touched the lives of everyone in the country. No international sport (important in white South African culture), no cultural exchanges, no direct flights to much of the world, no British television shows even. South Africa was removed from the Commonwealth. Attempts to break the boycotts by "rebel tours" were met with vandalism and protest. Individual South African sportspeople were treated as villains. That excludes the economic sanctions that drove the apartheid state to bankruptcy. The line between individual, and regime was blurry, because it was known that the apartheid state was voted into power by white South Africans and they had the power to vote it out (as they eventually did). The world decided that apartheid was immoral, and gave it no quarter.