538. South Africa: What the West Needs to Learn | Dr. Ernst Roets

Born a Crime is the story of a strong-willed black mother and her mixed-race child as they traverse life in South Africa during apartheid. When comedian Trevor Noah was born in the mid-1980s, his birth was a crime under the laws of apartheid, forbade whites and blacks from mixing and procreating. Growing up during and after apartheid, Noah struggled to understand where he belonged in this racially divided environment.

Through anecdotes from Noah and his mother’s life and details regarding the elements and consequences of apartheid, Noah provides an insider’s perspective of racism, survival, abuse, love, and the importance of heritage in a society built on difference and oppression.

Think back to your US history classes—how much time did you spend studying Native American perspectives? According to some experts, it probably wasn’t much. History professor and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz fills that knowledge gap with An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. Published in 2014, this book is a retelling of US history that makes two major arguments: First, the US’s global success can be traced directly to its genocide of Native Americans. Second, indigenous resistance holds the key to a more peaceful future.

In this guide, we’ll discuss life in precolonial America and explain what led Europe to colonize the Americas. Then, we’ll explain how patterns of genocide and resistance have played out over the course of US history. Our commentary will provide additional information and alternative ideas about the historical events Dunbar-Ortiz covers. We’ll also explore social issues related to colonization, explain how Native American resistance efforts intersect with other movements, and provide an update on US-indigenous relations in the 21st century.

Born a Crime is the story of a strong-willed black mother and her mixed-race child as they traverse life in South Africa during apartheid. When comedian Trevor Noah was born in the mid-1980s, his birth was a crime under the laws of apartheid, forbade whites and blacks from mixing and procreating. Growing up during and after apartheid, Noah struggled to understand where he belonged in this racially divided environment.

Through anecdotes from Noah and his mother’s life and details regarding the elements and consequences of apartheid, Noah provides an insider’s perspective of racism, survival, abuse, love, and the importance of heritage in a society built on difference and oppression.

The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein is a study of the history of economic shock therapy, which aims to quickly improve a country’s economy through rapid privatization, deregulation, and severe cuts in government spending. She also describes how it gave rise to the disaster capitalism complex: a privatized system of destruction and rebuilding that funnels billions of dollars into corporate pockets. The book discusses the incredible harm that economic shock therapy and disaster capitalism have caused to millions of people all over the world.

Klein is an award-winning author, filmmaker, and activist. She’s dedicated her life to studying the personal and environmental harms that result from wars and unchecked capitalism.

Long Walk to Freedom chronicles Nelson Mandela’s extraordinary life story, as told by the man himself. Mandela is known as one of history’s great peacemakers, but his own life wasn’t a peaceful one. He fought against South Africa’s racist government policies and its system of apartheid from the 1940s to the 1960s. He then spent 27 years in prison, where he became a worldwide symbol of the South African struggle for freedom.

This guide explores Mandela’s experiences during four time periods: his childhood, his time as a young political activist, the years he spent in prison, and the time after his release. Our commentary provides background information about South Africa, including its political parties and important historical figures, as well as explores broader global trends of racism and oppression. We’ll also briefly examine Nelson Mandela’s legacy and what South Africa is like in its post-apartheid years.

The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein is a study of the history of economic shock therapy, which aims to quickly improve a country’s economy through rapid privatization, deregulation, and severe cuts in government spending. She also describes how it gave rise to the disaster capitalism complex: a privatized system of destruction and rebuilding that funnels billions of dollars into corporate pockets. The book discusses the incredible harm that economic shock therapy and disaster capitalism have caused to millions of people all over the world.

Klein is an award-winning author, filmmaker, and activist. She’s dedicated her life to studying the personal and environmental harms that result from wars and unchecked capitalism.

Long Walk to Freedom chronicles Nelson Mandela’s extraordinary life story, as told by the man himself. Mandela is known as one of history’s great peacemakers, but his own life wasn’t a peaceful one. He fought against South Africa’s racist government policies and its system of apartheid from the 1940s to the 1960s. He then spent 27 years in prison, where he became a worldwide symbol of the South African struggle for freedom.

This guide explores Mandela’s experiences during four time periods: his childhood, his time as a young political activist, the years he spent in prison, and the time after his release. Our commentary provides background information about South Africa, including its political parties and important historical figures, as well as explores broader global trends of racism and oppression. We’ll also briefly examine Nelson Mandela’s legacy and what South Africa is like in its post-apartheid years.

Born a Crime is the story of a strong-willed black mother and her mixed-race child as they traverse life in South Africa during apartheid. When comedian Trevor Noah was born in the mid-1980s, his birth was a crime under the laws of apartheid, forbade whites and blacks from mixing and procreating. Growing up during and after apartheid, Noah struggled to understand where he belonged in this racially divided environment.

Through anecdotes from Noah and his mother’s life and details regarding the elements and consequences of apartheid, Noah provides an insider’s perspective of racism, survival, abuse, love, and the importance of heritage in a society built on difference and oppression.

What are the greatest threats to democracy today? How do healthy democratic states descend into illiberalism and authoritarian rule—and how can defenders and proponents of democracy prevent this from happening?

In Shortform’s Master Guide to Threats to Democracy, we’ve synthesized the ideas and recommendations of some of the world’s leading political scientists from across the ideological spectrum to bring insight to this important—and timely—question. We’ll explore forces like polarization, the decline of democratic norms, and extreme wealth inequality that combine to weaken and undermine democratic institutions.

We’ll also examine some of the ways proponents of democracy can promote stronger and healthier democratic institutions through specific institutional reforms, new economic policies to combat inequality, and actions at the individual and grassroots levels to overcome the social divisions that corrode democracy.

In Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson explores the phenomenon of nationalism. His core insight is that the concept of “the nation” has no basis in empirical reality, but is instead a purely political innovation that constructs a shared identity binding strangers from different communities together—usually on the basis of a shared language, history, culture, religion, or ethnicity. Thus, although a nation may consist of tens of millions of people—nearly all of whom will never personally know or even meet one another—nationalism allows each individual to think of themselves as a member of a singular community with a shared identity.

In this guide, we’ve added alternative viewpoints on the basis of nationalism, including psychological and anthropological perspectives. We've also added more historical context for Anderson's theories.

Today, many experts claim that life for humans has never been better. However, in The Divide, Jason Hickel argues that today’s Western-led world order causes massive global inequality while simultaneously trying to cover it up. Western elites amass wealth and power while billions remain trapped in poverty and hunger. This “divide,” he says, arose through centuries of violent and exploitative European colonization that devastated the Global South while enriching the West.

Hickel, an economic anthropologist from Eswatini, saw this divide firsthand while growing up in a poor Global South nation. Today, he studies the structural injustices of the global economy and the politics that enable it. The Divide is for anyone who wants to know more about these complex global issues—and about the lesser-known world history that explains them. It’s also for anyone eager to think about solutions to these problems. In our commentary, we’ll explore related perspectives on economics, inequality, and development, including those from Doughnut Economics and An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States.