Race & Reconciliation: Karson Kopecky
Karson Kopecky is a senior studying Criminology from Virginia Beach, Virginia. He and other students and faculty from Virginia Tech are currently in South Africa on a trip entitled "Race and Reconciliation: An Immersive Case Study of South Africa and Apartheid."
The purpose of the trip is to participate in a culturally immersive case study in South Africa and to become acquainted with its history and potential, including challenges associated with racial injustice, economic development, governance, and education.
Read on to hear about Karson's experiences in South Africa!
Sunday, January 8
This morning we awoke to the beautiful sounds of Cape Town. The birds were chirping, the cars were humming below in the city streets, and the daily dose of wind administered by the Cape Doctor was kicking in. I was the first one to come out to breakfast, and in my moment of solitude, I had no other choice but to simply take everything in, one last time. To be honest, I was quite sad. These past few days have been those of both splendid routine and exciting new experiences. As I sat there, I realized this would be the last time on this trip that I’d be experiencing Cape Town and all it had to offer (yet hopefully not the last time visiting forever). I undoubtedly concluded that I would be perfectly content waking up every morning to that view overlooking the city, with the harbor shimmering in the distance, and Table Mountain watching over everyone off to the side. I would be perfectly content eating my lovely breakfast every morning consisting of fresh fruit, pastries, corn flakes, sunny side up eggs, bacon, apple juice, and my new found love of wheat toast, slathered with salty marmite, butter, and honey. I came to love the routine and combination of that delicious breakfast paired with that calming, yet beautiful view of Cape Town, that gave me the feeling that this type of life could be the solution to world peace.
At 8:30 AM, we said our bittersweet farewells to the lovely city of Cape Town and headed off to the airport. Next stop: Johannesburg. Check in and security were swift and painless, and we enjoyed some quick airport shopping before our flight boarded. We took off at 11:00 AM and, luckily, I snagged the prized window seat. How often does one get to see hundreds of miles of South Africa from 35,000 feet in the air? I knew this was going to be a special and awesome plane ride. The first thing I realized was that there were a lot of mountains. These mountains were tremendous, stretching along for what seemed like miles (or kilometers in South Africa). Up in the sky, looking down at the world of South Africa below, I gained a great amount of respect for the people of Africa that both currently live here, and that have lived here for thousands of years before us. This climate is brutal. It is dry, hot, windy, and unforgiving. The fact that people have survived here for millenniums in this environment shows how strong of a people Africans are. Even today, while I was looking down on South Africa, I noticed small pockets of people and individual homes spread out all across the desolate landscape. I can only assume that they chose to live this secluded life, therefore, I say more power to them. Their lives are so different from mine and yours, however, it’s simple to see that we are all the same in many ways. We learned today from our tour guide, Bruce, that every single person that is living, and that has ever lived, has one common female ancestor from Africa. We’re all connected in the same way. This train of thought makes me realize even more how the problems South Africa has faced are so convoluted and disturbing.
We safely arrived in Johannesburg around 1:00 PM. It was cloudy and slightly rainy, a good sign when you’re visiting Africa, according to the locals. From here, we met our new driver, Harrison, and took off to visit the Apartheid Museum. Since we hadn’t eaten lunch, when we arrived to the museum, we first headed to the museum’s café to grab a quick bite to eat. As we perused the menu, many of our eyes fell on an unusual item: an ostrich burger. Seeing this as a rare opportunity that needed to be taken advantage of, the majority of us ordered said ostrich burger. Fortunately, it was delicious, uniquely flavored with holiday spices such as nutmeg and all-spice, and having a lean and slightly beefy flavor.
After lunch, we all individually branched off and started making our way through the Apartheid Museum, taking in and processing all of the vivid and harsh details of the apartheid era at our own pace. To put it simply and briefly, it’s tough. The main question that seems to occupy your mind the most is: Why? Why did some people feel the need to completely and totally segregate others based solely on the fact that the color of their skin was different from theirs? Why did some people feel the need to hurt, torture, murder, arrest, and jail others based solely on the fact that the color of their skin was different? Why was there so much hatred? Why was there so much pain? Why was there so much violence? Why do humans act this way? Like I said before, it’s tough. I don’t have an answer to any of these questions. The only way I could start to go about addressing them would be to put myself in the shoes of everyone involved, and I can’t do that. I can’t do that because I will never understand how someone can feel so much hate, and have so much absolute and complete negligence for someone else because the other person has skin that is darker than theirs. I can’t do that because I will never be able to understand the true pain, humiliation, abandonment, hardships, and discrimination that non-whites experienced for so many years. None of it makes sense. But, it doesn’t have to. It happened, and we need to remember that it happened so we can do our best to prevent it from ever happening again. It really is scary seeing some of the comparisons between apartheid era South Africa and present day United States. When you propose a nationwide segregation on a specific group of people based off something they cannot control, and something that proudly and strongly defines who they are as a person, absolutely no good can come from that. It is pointless, cowardice, selfish, and shameful. We need to love each other, talk to each other, disagree with each other AND then compromise with each other. Treating others in a loving and caring way is a lot easier than treating others poorly. To me, it’s that simple. We all learned as children to treat others the way we would like to be treated. When did some of us forget that?
After our visit to the Apartheid Museum, we went to check in at our beautiful hotel. Once we were settled in, we took a taxi to Mandela Square, the town center of Johannesburg, to eat dinner. When we arrived, we were greeted by a tall statue of a jovial and dancing Nelson Mandela. This brought a smile to all of our faces as we posed for a picture with him. We decided to eat dinner at a fantastic restaurant called Trumps (no affiliation to our president-elect, in case you were wondering). It would be an understatement to say that the food was good. It was awesome. Great South African lamb, steaks, Springbok (a South African antelope), beer, wine, and desserts filled our table and, ultimately, our stomachs. The perfect meal, accompanied by perfect company, and stimulating and exuberant conversation was the best way to end our first night in the lovely city of Johannesburg.