There are those in America that would liken the struggle to end Apartheid in South Africa to the struggle to end the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare. Let be be absolutely clear about this; “those people” making the argument that Apartheid is anything like the health care reform bill are fucking idiots. Can’t say plainer than that.

The idea that nearly one hundred years of not only legal segregation, but state sponsored murder, slaughtering of Black children, ghettos, Blacks being legally forbidden from holding any government jobs of any kind, Mandela’s 27 years spent in prison, and the forced imprisonment of literally millions of other Blacks are all just like Obamacare is utterly ridiculous. “Those people” making this argument, even the argument about the state interfering with the social organization of your life, are all out of their minds. Seriously. There is no reality where this makes sense. The only government system that does not interfere with its citizens’ lives is Anarchy, and that frankly does not work and is always quickly replaced by tribalism. So the question becomes that of the degree to which the government interferes. I think it is safe to say that so far; Obamacare has not imprisoned anyone, Obamacare has not forbidden any racial group from holding government office, Obamacare has not sanctioned nor enforced any ethnic group being forced to live in ghettos, and Obamacare has not deprived anyone of their rights to work, travel, or vote. Apartheid did that to everyone that was a non-Caucasian European.

This video is an extremely sanitized documentary about Apartheid in South Africa from 1957. The video does not depict violence of any sort. But it does still manage to convey the harsh realities of the why, and how, of Apartheid.

“The Apartheid Era of South Africa – History Documentary”
Year of production: 1957
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-Fw2uaon54