LESSONS FROM SOUTH AFRICA AND AMERICA

BEYOND THE MYTH OF POST-RACIAL SOCIETY

When I arrived in Durban in 1997, South Africa pulsed with the promise of transformation. Just a few years after apartheid's end, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was working to heal deep wounds, and Mandela's presidency embodied hope for a more equitable future. The optimism in the air reminded me of my parents' stories about America's Civil Rights Movement – that same belief that progress, though slow, was inevitable.

Twenty-three years later, as I sat down with filmmakers Marquis Smalls from Brooklyn and Dylan Valley from Cape Town, the parallels between our nations' journeys emerged with striking clarity. Both countries had celebrated historic presidential elections that seemed to herald the arrival of what optimists called a "post-racial society" – first Mandela in South Africa, then Obama in America. Yet the reality proved far more complex.