Ignorance is not bliss: Slavery, Jim Crow and Apartheid.

By: Munei Zoe Mbedzi

As a society, we have become accustomed to letting go of history and its traumas to make room for the traumas of today. In doing so, we forget that many of the issues we experience now are deeply motivated by what was experienced generations ago. We are often encouraged to move forward without fully understanding what we are moving forward from.

Black people were reduced, oppressed, and degraded for centuries, and sometimes it feels as though society has forgotten just how much was taken from them. Their personhood, rationality, autonomy, and humanity were stripped away. “Savages” was not merely a term used against Black people; it became a lived reality because they were treated as less than human. Slurs like the " k-word” and “N word.” Were used to enforce racial inferiority and perpetuate the false narrative that black people amount to nothing. They were denied dignity, denied rights, and denied the opportunity to exist as equals in societies that greatly profited from their suffering.

When discussing systemic racism, many people speak about it as though it is a thing of the past. Yet history tells a different story. The Jim Crow era institutionalised segregation and racial discrimination, ensuring that the inequalities created by slavery would continue long after slavery officially ended. Policies such as segregation and redlining limited opportunities for Black communities while benefiting white communities. Racism was never simply about individual prejudice; it was built into systems that were designed to favour white people, while disadvantaging black people and other people of colour.

An image of Thomas D., an entertainer at the time who would dress up in blackface and become Jim Crow- From Pinterest

 In South Africa, apartheid reflected many of the same principles. Legislation such as the Group Areas Act forcibly separated people according to race and reinforced racial hierarchies that privileged white South Africans while marginalising Black people, coloured people, and other people of colour. Although apartheid has ended, its effects still linger in our communities, economies, and institutions. This is precisely why conversations about race cannot be separated from conversations about history.

We also tend to shy away from discussing the ways Black people were portrayed and ridiculed. Blackface was popular throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with white performers darkening their skin to mock Black people, culture, accent, music, and identity. It reinforced harmful stereotypes and promoted the idea that Black people were inferior, unattractive, and inhuman. These portrayals did not disappear when blackface became socially unacceptable; many of the attitudes it helped create still influence beauty standards today. This is one of the reasons colourism remains so deeply rooted within society. For generations, darker skin was associated with negative stereotypes while lighter skin was seen as more desirable. Even today, many people struggle to understand the diversity that exists within Black identity because historical misrepresentations of Black people were often based on exaggeration, mockery, and ignorance rather than reality.

An image taken at Constitutional Hill Precinct in South Africa- Photo taken by Munei Zoe Mbedzi

While it is important to pay attention to the challenges facing our generation, we should never forget the trauma and oppression experienced by those who came before us. Too often, we are taught diluted versions of slavery and apartheid. We learn dates and laws, but not always the full extent of the suffering. During apartheid, Black people, coloured people, and other people of colour were beaten, imprisoned, displaced, and denied basic human rights. During slavery, Black people were forced to labour on plantations, separated from their families, forced to carry heavy chains around their necks, sold at auctions, and treated as property rather than human beings. Their labour built economies, yet they were denied the benefits of their own contributions.

An Image depicting a black man being sold off at an auction during slavery- Image from Pinterest

Everything Black people and other people of colour did was often for the benefit of those who oppressed them. Entire economies were shaped by systems that rewarded whiteness while exploiting Black labour. To acknowledge this history is not to dwell on the past; it is to understand the foundations upon which the present was built.

Being Black is not a curse; it is a privilege. It is more than an identity; it is a lived experience, a culture, a history, and a source of strength. Being dark-skinned, feeling the sun against your skin, wearing your natural hair proudly, and embracing your heritage should be normalised and celebrated. Blackness should never be something people feel pressured to minimise or apologise for. We live in a generation that often encourages us to move past history without truly confronting it. Forgetting history does not erase its implications.

The legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, and apartheid continues to shape the world around us. When we ignore these histories and their casualties, we risk becoming complicit in the very systems that they created. History matters because people matter. And if we truly want a more equal future, we must first be willing to remember the past and confront it by having more conversations about the undiluted realities of racism.