Today, I had the privilege to attend a talk about growing up in a racially segregated South Africa, where blacks and whites had different buses, schools, toilets, restaurants and more with White people often having better facilities than coloured people. The speaker was Mrs. Jones, who moved to South Africa at the age of 10 and attended a prestigious white girls school. Despite all school’s being forced to obey the government and not oppose any of it’s decisions, it was only the effort and the teachings of a Liberal history teacher that opened Mrs Jones’s eyes to the real South Africa, one of brutality and mistreatment. Back then, South Africa partly resembled an Orwellian State where Media and news was controlled by the government, what the public saw and even had a Secret Police that was responsible for tracking down and silencing anybody that dared to oppose the regime. This was news to me since I didn’t see the full extent of how brutal and unfair South Africa was. Despite how controlling the former South African government was, It didn’t stop Mrs. Jones from seeing past the lies and being a part of several organisations that supported the anti-apartheid movement. The inequality and unfairness that she witnessed actually convinced her to become a educator so she can personally ensure that Bias and fake news will never be prevalent in schools. She said that being bullied in class made her empathise withe people suffering because of Apartheid and that made her a advocate for social justice.

What really stayed with me was how faithful Mrs. Jones was to her values and beliefs despite growing up in a country that tried it’s best to quell any rebels. Listening to Mrs. Jones really gave me a lot to think about and has made me appreciate how much humanity has moved on since them.