I had been reading Trevor Noah’s autobiographical essays entitled Born A Crime.  Noah, a South African comedian, was born five years before the end of the practice of apartheid.  At the time of his birth, it was a crime, punishable by jail time for a white man and a black woman to be in a sexual relationship.  The same was true for a black man and a white woman.  It was the law of the land, complete with proscribed jail time.

I knew that apartheid was a repressive and dehumanizing practice.  I did not know the extent of the persecution, oppression and violence that was intrinsic to it.  However, what I learned from reading Born A Crime appalled me and left me sad and embarrassed that I had not taken stronger action during the campaign to end its practice. 

Like Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation effectively ending the practice of slavery in the United States, the ending of apartheid did not magically bring all the injustices in South Africa into balance.  Noah’s telling of his life post-apartheid is both tragic and charming.  He is a very funny, very smart, very inciteful man.

His straightforward writing had an impact on me with its candid description of his life.  Here is a quote that stands out for me, “We live in a world where we don’t see the ramifications of what we do to others, because we don’t live with them.” In the case of apartheid, blacks and whites were prohibited from living in physical proximity.  This makes the “seeing” of adverse effects impossible. I think that the same is true for most of us in today’s world.

There is a lesson here for us.  Expressing “sympathy” about unjust situations may get us off the hook, in a manner of speaking.  However, mean comments or observations about a group of people or worse, acting in an unjust manner illustrates that we really don’t understand the effects of our actions on others. 

Christ’s journey on earth was centered around bringing a new commandment into being:  Love- Love of God above all others and love of neighbor.  We are the recipients of God’s unconditional love.  It’s a difficult example to follow, but one worth trying.

Proverbs 28:5 Evil men do not understand justice,
But those who seek the Lord understand all things.

 Terri