Let's Break with Apartheid!
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LET'S BREAK WITH APARTHEID! Why Are We Protesting? • This film reinforces the myth that in Southern Africa white people are superior to Black people. • .South Africa practices institutionalized raCism, otherwise known as apartheid, on a grand scale. Apartheid denies Black South Africans both human and political rights! Filmmaker Jamie Uys is a white South African who does not call this socio-economic system into question but rather trivial izes it. • The fact that this film is enjoying international popularity and is being screened in Manhattan indicates that racism is an acceptable way of life, not only in South Africa but in the United States. As long as white racism exists, there will be neither peace nor social justice in either the U.S. or in South Africa. •The U.S. government and U.S. multinational corporations play a major role in propping up apart heid. This heinous situation gives us the important responsibility of challenging one of white su premacy's most. vital lifelines . • By b6~otting this film we are saying no to white racism in South Africa and in the U.S. and wher ever else it rears its ugly head. TAKE A STAND AGAINST RACISM MAKE NEW YORK AN APARTHEID FREE ZONE! Sponsored by Brooklynites Against Apartheid I MAKING FILMS FOR APARTHEID IS GETTING TO BE A HABIT, LET'S BREAK IT ... "The Gods Must Be Crazy" has receive~d rave reviews as a "comedy". Do you know what you're being csked to laugh at? The San people (a Black nation otherwise known as Bushmen), about whom this film is made, are one .of the oldest civiliz.ations on earth. They are nearing extinction now because. during the European colonization of South Africa, it used to be sport to hunt and kill them .. Sections of this film depict Blacks and whites worK1rig harmoniously together as equals. This is not true, Blacks work for whites. The white minority population has access to all the priviledges that South Africa has to offer; while Black people cannot own land, cannot choose where and how they want to work, cannot choose where they live, cannot choose their own leaders, cannot even vote. Black South Africans have their entire ~qstinies mapped out for them by the white minority rulers. In order to enforce this gross inequality, the South African government rules by force. South Afri ca has a para-military police force and the largest army in Africa. Black people do not passively accf~pt the dictates of t''"3 South African government, thus they continually resist the system of apartheid. This resistance, together with the draconian system of social control, makes policing Black people a full-time job for white people. This film enhances South Africa's international image and boosts the South African economy, thereby strengthening South Africa's role in the world. The sad thing about all of this is that the Unit ed States government and the corporate big shots here think that South Africa is a great place to do business, because of the high profits one also because South Africa is regarded as a friend of the West. What they really mean is that racislT' doesn't bother them. Why should it? They are racists too, in their own right. It's not enough to feel uncomfortable or apologetic about the U.S. relationship with apartheid South Africa. Excuses will not make racism go away . people can make racism go away and that especially includes us in the U.S. To do this we have to act against any manifestation of inequality. If New Yorkers go to see this film, we are actively accepting apartheid. If we ignore what this film represents we are passively endorsing apartheid. If we make a statem~nt by actinb ::.igainst the screening of this film, we are proving to ourselves and to the rest of the world that we will not accept racism. LET'S MAKE A RIGHT CHOICE BY AT LEAST BOYCOTTING THIS FILM. SUPPORT PEACE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE .. FIGHT APARTHEID HERE AND IN SOUTH AFRICA. The folk r~ponsib. le fbr this particular outcry against "The Gods Must Be Crazy," mostly come from Park Slope 1n Brooklyn. Park Slope was recently the venue for the filming of a South African com mercial, advertising a South African brand of liquor, to be screened back in South Africa. We dem onstrated against the commercial because it was an apartheid-sponsored enterprise. We want the supporters of apartheid to know that their activities will be resisted whether it's a commercial in Park Slope or a film being shown on the Upper East Side. .