There is lots to criticize here but I’d argue that (white) Americans should bit their tongue and let others speak for once. Lincoln wasn’t in charge 20 years ago and still the US has immense problems with institutional racism, ghettos etc etc.
South Africa’s road to freedom is still long. The color of one’s skin doesn’t condemn a human but also doesn’t exculpate him, so there is plenty of corruption in the new black middle class; but to be fair, the abyss of poverty black masses experienced through the 20th century in SA can’t be filled in a few years. Even taking away everything the black middle class or the white establishment accumulated, there probably wouldn’t be enough around to get rid of all “informal settlements”. You can’t really appreciate the scale of the challenge until you see them from a hill; they are breathtaking and terrifying at the same time. It will take several generations to make progress, if progress can be made at all: remember SA is a rich country by African standards, a migration destination for even larger and poorer masses up North. It’s entirely possible that, as more people move out of shacks, someone else will replace them.
Some problems are just hard.
