Overcoming Discrimination In South America

Over the course of American history, the question of have attitudes towards foreigners or blacks changed is continuously asked. With countless protests, reforms, speakers and even a war one would think yes considering there are no longer segregated areas or racial slurs yelled out. So, America has moved towards a more equal world, but what about countries such as South Africa that faced an even more difficult struggle overcoming discrimination? When reading the first chapter of Invictus, one particular quote made me think maybe so. The lines read, “ The curious thing was that while Mandela had been the supplicant, Coetsee was the one who felt uncomfortable. It was a mixture of guilt and fear - guilt because he would be seeing Mandela as the emissary of the

I would want to do this, you would want to this, anyone would want to do this type of harm. A few pages later with the setting of Coetsee entering Mandela’s hospital room the book reads, “ ...Apprehension on both sides evaporated. Mandela, a modeling host smiling, put Coetsee at ease...almost immediately...prisoner and jailer found themselves chatting amiably.” I found this rather interesting because Coetsee’s attitude was going to be dependent on Mandela’s attitude opposite of how it would have been years ago. Years ago, Coetsee would not have cared how Mandela acted, he would have gone in aggressively and walked out with ease. Now today, he was caring towards how Mandela was acting, he was worried and cautious. This is a great picture of how South Africa was changing. Coetsee no longer felt that Nelson Mandela was the bad one, but rather that the white government were the bad ones. The racial attitudes were finally evolving to be less discriminatory, South Africa was finally making improvements, things were finally getting