I remember back in the 80s during all the boycotts, and with Mandela imprisoned, the US press generally portrayed the Dutch/Afrikaners as the bad guys, and the ethnic British as the more enlightened liberal 'reformers'. Apartheid was bad of course, but it was still frustrating how the press oversimplified everything.
I also remember how Reagan was against the boycotts, because he felt strongly that boycotts would hurt the very people we were trying to help ... Reagan was loudly accused of being a racist and pro-apartheid for this of course.
Nowadays, people have such short memories, I don't think many Americans at all know there's even a difference between Dutch & British, or just how many different ethnic groups–European, African and Indian–exist in South Africa.
I remember back in the 80s during all the boycotts, and with Mandela imprisoned, the US press generally portrayed the Dutch/Afrikaners as the bad guys, and the ethnic British as the more enlightened liberal 'reformers'. Apartheid was bad of course, but it was still frustrating how the press oversimplified everything.
I also remember how Reagan was against the boycotts, because he felt strongly that boycotts would hurt the very people we were trying to help ... Reagan was loudly accused of being a racist and pro-apartheid for this of course.
Nowadays, people have such short memories, I don't think many Americans at all know there's even a difference between Dutch & British, or just how many different ethnic groups–European, African and Indian–exist in South Africa.