On My Traitor's Heart

My Traitor’s Heart by Rian Malan

Malan discusses the uprising and the white people’s fear of black people. When he talks about his fear as he stops to pick up black hitchhikers, he shows how people can judge based on race. “I was stricken with remorse, to think that I had harbored such ugly suspicions about such kindly people (p. 225).” Malan is not a supporter of Apartheid, and doesn’t consider himself racist, but I think this shows that everyone is slightly racist in ways like Jurie (freedom fighter we met) had said. Although people may not use racism in a cruel way, perhaps it’s still there. All humans naturally stereotype and group people based on race. If it isn’t based on something as negative as fear and hatred, or even dislike, is this view really so bad? Does it make someone an evil person when they are afraid of someone based on race, or is it just how they were brought up? I think no one is really all good or all bad. Humans are more complex than that, and although some people lean towards one side, and racism shows this sometimes, people have multiple views. It is hatred in racism that I think is truly evil. Does that made the person evil? Perhaps. Looking at The Power of One, Hoppie is racist when it comes to the Indian woman, yet I believe he is neither good nor bad, though maybe it is simply a matter of opinion.

Reading response by Lindsey