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01/18/2006:

"A Biography of Nadine Gordimer"

...It is also interesting to see how Gordimer saw herelf as a privileged white person involved in the struggle against apartheid. "When white detractors accuse Gordimer of 'hardness' in her portrayal of whites," writes Roberts, "she retorts: 'If I am pointing fingers at whites, am I not a white myself? Isn't it always mea culpa? If I'm dissecting whites, am I not dissecting myself. ...I'm right in the middle of it." This is a far cry from today's white activists in South Africa who constantly tell poor black people that racism is no more, class is the real issue. Whites' arrogance of instructing millions of poor blacks who are subjected to racism daily in South Africa about their reality is
simply astounding, to say the very least. According to Roberts, Toni Morrison once said of Gordimer: "Gordimer managed to 'validate' race while also interrogating and moving beyond it: neither wishing race away...nor remaining mired in racialism." One finds that one cannot honestly say the same about most white activists in South Africa today, especially on the issue of Zimbabwe.
zmag.org