Segregation and poverty of the white middle class in South Africa | Barber Shop Ep. 6
1,275,929
Published 2019-08-13
Click here to get to the playlist with all 6 episodes: bit.ly/BarberShopSeries
Barber Shop South Africa brings the story of the impoverished white middle class who decides to insulate itself from the outside world and settles in strict religious communities (Filadelfia Ark) in the countryside.
Subscribe to the channel: goo.gl/5Sp36B
Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/wocomo
South Africa has known a turbulent history of occupation, discrimination against the black population. With the ANC in power and today in the post-Mandela era, the roles are reversed. We see a true ‘Black Economic Empowerment’, in which the black people are favoured in terms of housing and employment. The white middle class is slowly slipping away into poverty.
Adri (36) is the white female hairdresser of Filadelfia Ark, a community West of Pretoria. She cuts hair on a chair outside her bungalow. Her customers appreciate her gentle approach and visit her for an enjoyable talk. Filadelfia Ark has almost paradise like surroundings, with lakes, animals and an outdoor dining-place, but the community radiates a story of fear, exclusion, poverty and religion.
South Africa needs a real policy of transformation that provides opportunities for the whole country and reopens it to the world economic sphere. The BEE has become a source of instability for South Africa, has created an elite linked to a corrupt government that feeds the scourge of inequality and impedes the country's economic advancement.
We meet 6 populations in transition via the microcosm of the local barbershop. In every episode, a population finds itself on the verge of change and a barber plays his role. As opinion maker, as confessor, as story collector, as society barometer. Gradually, Barber Shop measures the state of our world, offering dialogue and human resilience as a hopeful perspective for the future.
#SocietyReflections #wocomoHUMANITY
© Licensed by First Hand Films
All Comments (21)
-
So nice to see a farmer helping the poor, you hardly see this, I am really moved and wish I could shake his hand
-
Lord please watch over oom Dirk. This man is an angel amongst men. Truly and honestly thank you for what you are doing. May God bless you in abundance
-
This is fascinating. A few thoughts: I grew up around people like this, and they are definitely NOT middle class, and probably (mostly) do not come from from middle-class backgrounds. They are “ poor whites”, and they have always existed in SA, even under apartheid. There has always been a class of poor Afrikaners in SA, this is not a problem created after 1994, it has always existed. Of course this is no comfort to these people - poverty is poverty not matter what race you are. Oom Dirk is doing something he feels called to do, and that it's good. Feeding fears and blaming blacks for their plight is toxuc, though. While you blame other people for your situation you can never solve them. Oh, and joking about feeding some to crocodiles because they're black is just psychopathic...and it's all wrapped up in a religious sauce. This is feels like a weird cult to me, and it's vaguely creepy.
-
God bless South Africa. I pray for world peace.
-
The problem is not colour but the mindset
-
I love this idea of helping one another despite the odds..
-
All I can say is this the most organized squatter camp I have come across 😃
-
Thanks to people that open their heart's to other people that are struggling
-
I'm a white Afrikaner myself but why am I then the only one who finds many parts of what the people in this video (MY people) say and believe very disturbing? This video has honestly left me very torn: I feel pride in the resourcefulness and discipline of the Afrikaner volk - a resourcefulness that's brought our forefathers through many hard times before. Everyone in the community contributes to the community and then benefits from being part of the community. BUT on the other hand I'm also deeply troubled by the ignorance and racial hatred that is bred by poverty and being marginalized in general
-
Black, White, Yellow, Pink or Green... Doesn't matter. May God bless this man's soul for helping his fellow-man in need. May we all one day stop bickering about pointless sh*t and start seeing each other for the interdependent human beings that we are. We can all take a page from somewhere in this man's book. Stop insulting each other and only seeing the apartheid and other negative things that we as humans LOOK for in every situation and try and walk away with something positive from this.
-
I'm not here to judge what's happening in South Africa . Every country has their issues some more complex than others but I wish the South African people well and peace for the future ✌️
-
I'm old enough to remember the brutality of apartheid and the protests across the world. It is tempting to say karma is a bitch. However, the rich white South Africans are still rich living in their gated communities. The poor, divided, are kept busy hating each other. They remain powerless and easy to control. Trust and believe those in power like it that way.
-
I'm South African but really now this mindset of these people in this video needs to change....
-
“When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.” - Thomas Sowell
-
A true heart of gold what the owner of the farm have. To take all those people in and to give them hope. May God bless you in abundance.
-
Racism is not the Answer of Racism. It's learning from past and building better future.
-
I think the Dirk guy is doing a good thing, to give a place for those who need it. But blaming us the blacks is not the solution, we normal citizens have been screwed over by the previous white government and our current black government, we been poor for centuries. Emphasize with us en blame the government like we do..
-
reallity is way more scarier than fiction
-
So very organized and clean. This is proof that just because people are struggling they can still take excellent care of their environment. A nice peaceful place.
-
They lost me when they started using slurs. They may have a "neat/clean" physical living space but a lot of them are clearly hateful and miseducated.
