Comments and discussion

In your analysis of “What Life Was Like In South Africa During Apartheid” by Michelle Faul, you should consider commenting on or discussing those statements and aspects that are most interesting or controversial about the artic…

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The author's personal experiences

For example, you could consider the three personal experiences the writer presents: visiting South Africa as a child, going to England as a child, and visiting South Africa as a teenager.

As a child in South Africa, the writer could only grasp her mother’s frustration and the fact that black people were treated differently: “My mother was furious. The operators of the gas station in rural, racist South Africa had taken her money to fill the car, but would not give her the key to the toilets.” (ll. 1-3);

Then, because she was only used to black people being treated as inferior, she formed certain ideas which were contradicted by her experience in England. We find out she was shocked to…

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Racial discrimination during apartheid

Another aspect you can consider discussing is how racism was “an institutionalized code” (p. 10, l. 14) in South Africa. It refers to the fact that the apartheid regime was considered legal and racial discrimination was implemented by law.

As the article reveals, this meant that black people had to use different toilets, or could not sleep at the same hotels as white people did. Furthermore, they lived in different residential areas and performed different jobs. They also did not mix in school or any other public sphere (black people had different schools, different hospitals, etc.) Consider how these policies consistently held back mixed-race or black South Africans from earning as much money as w…