THE WHITES IN SOUTH AFRICA
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poor Afrikaners in the early 'thirties. The Nationalist govern–
ment has shored up
this
section of the community with pro–
tected employment and special grants so that they can never
again fall to a black level. For them Apartheid means the as–
surance that they exist, for their existence largely consists in
"belonging to the White community." For a great number more
whites at all economic levels, Apartheid seems to stand between
them and a gradual retreat before black demands which would
mean at last emigration from what is a lotus eating paradise.
For the English this emigration would be intolerable in its sharp
descent in social scale and domestic comfort; for the Afrikaner
emigration would be unthinkable in its destruction of his na–
tional pride and spiritual self-esteem. But for a very small num–
ber of adherents both English and Afrikaner there is more than
just this self-preservation, they believe that White South Africa
has a culture worth defending. Is there any justification for this?
I find it hard to think so. Life in the cities, at .any rate, is
far easier for the mass of whites than in either Europe or the
United States. African servants it is true are not so easily found
now that increasing industrialization calls upon their labor.Apar–
theid too decreases the African domestic labor available. Yet
there is still more domestic help than any other middle-class
people know. The climate in Johannesburg and the Cape at
any rate is excellent. The countryside is beautiful, food plenti–
ful. English White South Africans have built out of this a
gracious living, country club, suburban paradise of cocktail
times and messing, about with boats. "Culture" is as always in
such groups relegated to the women and in general does not
rise above Book Club level. There are cultivated intelligent
groups and ease of life makes their company refreshingly "civil–
ized" in a more hurried modem world. Johannesburg with its
vast Jewish population has something of New York, something of
Frankfurt, something of Vienna to offer on the cultural level.
But of English and Jewish alike it is impossible to find any–
thing distinctive enough from European or American living to
