Jason Carter in Power Lines, by Jason Carter
On Civil Rights:
Living as minority in black Africa showed what racism meant
I had grown up with African Americans, gone to school with them and been good friends. I had walked out of my high school (which was about 50% white) with 100s of other students to protest racist remarks by a teacher. I had taken undergraduate courses
and participated in extensive discussions about race in America, in large & small groups. But until I had to live as a minority in a community where I was forced to be conscious of my race every day, I had not scratched the surface of what racism meant.
In America, like many people, I knew how to talk about racism. But I never really felt like I was living with it until I came to South Africa. Coming to an utterly race-obsessed society where people in my small group of closest friends were
harassed, where my job, my neighborhood, and my life made me constantly aware of my color, allowed me, for whatever reason, to finally look black Americans in the face and talk clearly and truthfully about race.
Source: Power Lines, by Jason Carter, p.210-1
Jun 1, 2003
On Crime:
Most Americans only know Africa for crime and AIDS
On both sides of South Africa's borders, crime dominates conversations. The police system under apartheid was organized not to fight crime, but to preserve the system.
A Coloured taxi driver in Nelspruit once explained this to me in terms of the "rising crime" issue. I was with another volunteer, speaking English, and when the driver learned that we were from America, he began speaking in
English as well. "How do you like our country?" "I think it's great," I answered. "What do Americans think about South Africa?" "Most of them,"
I answered honestly, "have only heard about crime and AIDS and other problems. But I love it here and have never had a problem at all."
Source: Power Lines, by Jason Carter, p.171-2
Jun 1, 2003
On Crime:
When robbed: perhaps my things will feed a poor family
When my house was broken into and all of my things were stolen, I found out how the community members band together to protect their own. That day one of the women told me that someone had broken down my door and stolen everything."Somehow,"
I kept telling myself, "this will work itself out." The wood around the door handle and lock had been splintered apart from the door.My thoughts fluctuated between "Will I get my things back?"
Can he get them to Jo-burg and sell them before we get to him?" and "Perhaps my things would be feeding his family." I might even have insurance to cover the entire cost. I agonized a little over what to do, but every single person I talked to the next
morning at school told me to go to the police.
The community and police found the criminal; every single article of clothing, all the money, the computer--everything was intact. The police were as proud as can be; I was happy to have my things back.
Source: Power Lines, by Jason Carter, p.177-9
Jun 1, 2003
On Education:
1998: Peace Corps educator in South Africa
I lived in a small rural village in South Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer. The Peace Corps was helping Nelson Mandela's government implement a new education curriculum designed for the new post-apartheid South Africa.
I worked at 3 schools in the area with teachers like Nhlanhla, who taught math and science at Lochiel Primary.
I was the only white person for miles. But the Peace Corps trains all of its members to speak the local language, and the grounding
I received in Siswati and Zulu allowed me to put black South Africa at ease and to participate in their lives to an extent unheard of for most of white South Africa.
Source: Power Lines, by Jason Carter, p. xviii
Jun 1, 2003
On Education:
Worked with rural African teachers on new curriculum
The educational system in South Africa had been an integral part of apartheid's plan. For black people, Bantu Education, as the government policy was called, was designed to teach them how to follow rules, how to respect authority, and how to prevent
ambition from clouding their minds. While the old curriculum would have given specific instructions, and an exact lesson plan for what to do on the 3rd day of 2nd grade, the new post-apartheid curriculum would simply tell the teacher what the children
should be able to do at the end of the year. Most teachers saw this not as freedom but as a lack of guidance. How were they supposed to proceed?
Our job as volunteers was to work with teachers in rural areas to help them implement the new curriculum
and reform other parts of their school organization to better fit the new educational environment. It was a well-designed project, and we all felt as though we were on the front lines of one of the most important battles of the post-apartheid struggle.
Source: Power Lines, by Jason Carter, p. 17-18
Jun 1, 2003
On Education:
Third World schooling presents extraordinary challenges
I had a job that spanned 3 Third World schools. The schools themselves were riddled with problems. Most of the parents of the children couldn't read or write. Many children walked for miles to school.
All the schools were poor enough to qualify for government subsidized lunches; 2 pieces of bread and cup of milk. For some this meal was the most substantial of the day.
The area's schools were overcrowded.
Sometimes 90 children sat in a single 3rd grade classroom. No child had his or her own desk, and many even shared chairs.
Apartheid's residue coated these schools from top to bottom.
I had come to South Africa to battle hardships in schools.
I regarded the challenge with a sense of optimism and relished the idea of making progress.
The challenge of educating children in this environment was extraordinary.
Source: Power Lines, by Jason Carter, p.101-3
Jun 1, 2003
On Education:
Teachers are means to vanquish South African apartheid
I had been in South Africa for a year, and I stayed busy in Lochiel. Some of the now familiar obstacles at work frustrated me, but I was inspired to work around them.
I truly believed that the tasks facing the teachers were the most important in South Africa's struggle to vanquish apartheid. In my struggle against the lingering oppression wrought by apartheid, almost daily I had new projects and ideas.
Numerous teachers told me that they could not improve their teaching results because the students received no support at home.
We engaged the secondary school to set up a big brother/big sister tutoring program to motivate both the younger and older students, especially those who showed potential for excellence.
Source: Power Lines, by Jason Carter, p.201-2
Jun 1, 2003
On Foreign Policy:
1997: Monitored Liberian elections with Carter Center
After graduation, I felt a need to go back to Africa, and I volunteered for a Carter Center trip to Liberia to help with the center's election-monitoring mission. They agreed to let me go because I had worked on Liberia as an intern and knew something
about the Carter Center policy--and also because Liberia was a dangerous place. The Carter Center knew they could send me anywhere, and no matter what happened, my family wouldn't sue.I left for Liberia in July 1997.
In my three weeks there, in addition to the work, I was going to decide if I wanted to spend more time in Africa.
After the election, won in a landslide by Charles Taylor, my grandfather asked my uncle Chip and me to stay for another three weeks to
represent him at Taylor's inauguration. My uncle and I spent a lot of that time traveling, trying to find out what was going on outside the compounds where most diplomats and international bureaucrats lived.
Source: Power Lines, by Jason Carter, p. 6-9
Jun 1, 2003
On Foreign Policy:
Africa is the story of self-respect in the face of hardship
One night one of the Nigerian soldiers from the checkpoint up at the main road strolled in. He had tribal markings on his face like many Nigerians. His scars began at the sides of his mouth, inscribed permanently by a knife when the boy had become a man.
He sat down and we started talking. "Let me buy you a beer," he said. "No," I said, "We'll take care of it. Here are $3. We'll each get one." The soldier grabbed my hand. "You are rich and white and from US," he said. "And I know that I'm poor and
black and from Africa. But I can buy you a beer. Do not disrespect me. Allow me to pay for it because I want to. Because I want to sit here as equals and share our beer."
He spoke with a thick Nigerian accent, and we had to listen closely to make out
exactly what he was saying. But in the end his message could not have been more clear. Africa is not only a story of war and famine and disease. It is also a story of triumph and self-respect in the face of those hardships.
Source: Power Lines, by Jason Carter, p. 9-10
Jun 1, 2003
On Foreign Policy:
American culture causes Third World cultural destruction
Was I a part of the cultural stampede that I had decried before I left? Snoop Dogg graffiti, and other bits of American hip-hop music dominated the Lochiel square. "How do you do this in America?" Conversations that I once thought were opportunities for
education, I now regarded as opportunities for cultural destruction. A Dutch woman said, "Americans are so insensitive that they do not see anything that is happening outside their borders, and still their culture presses in everywhere.
Even you, you come here to teach people how to be American." I said, "I'm not trying to westernize anyone."
She said, "it happens anyway. In Kenya, the Masai have stopped putting lip plates in their mouths because tourists thought it was disgusting.
That is sad. They have done this for years, and now they stop because white people come to town with money."
Deep down, I agreed with her. The cultural stampede was now moving right along, and something had to be done to preserve indigenous culture.
Source: Power Lines, by Jason Carter, p.236-7
Jun 1, 2003
On Government Reform:
Americans don't vote because we take democracy for granted
Teachers, like everyone else in South Africa, constantly asked me about US. "I read that people in US don't vote. Why?" A good question. I would say, "Because we take our democracy for granted in America."
Most people wanted to know how we did things in the greatest country on Earth. "Is there apartheid in America?" "No," I said quickly. "There is no apartheid." "So, then black people and white people just live together?" "Well, not exactly." "Do
black people live in locations?" "No," I answered. "They live right in the center of town." I marveled at my answer and wondered if that makes some sort of difference. "Do black Americans speak many, many languages?" "No,"
I said, "not like South Africa. Most speak only English." "It must be so easy for black people and white people to communicate!"
Source: Power Lines, by Jason Carter, p.114-5
Jun 1, 2003
On Government Reform:
Young don't vote because those issues don't affect them
I had been invited to appear with my grandfather at the Global meeting of Generations, and the Peace Corps had encouraged me to go. My grandfather and I were to have a moderated conversation, on stage, to demonstrate the value of intergenerational
dialogue. As one of my 1st public speaking engagements, it was an overwhelming experience. We discussed what we might say onstage. I knew that he was going to speak about the widening global gap between the rich and poor, how stingy
America is in giving foreign aid, [especially to] Africa. I would talk about being young, a member of my generation. I tried to explain why we often don't vote or seem to care about world issues. I told him we were alienated from the world's debate
over "major issues" because we did not see how those issues affected us. We could not muster the energy to march for small changes in the tax laws on international capital mobility. We needed some new rallying cries, something to latch onto as a cause.
Source: Power Lines, by Jason Carter, p.217-8
Jun 1, 2003
On Government Reform:
Make election day a national holiday to celebrate democracy
Election Day in RSA was inspiring. All but 34 of the 1,375 people registered at Lochiel voted [and perhaps those 34 had died before the election. When the polls opened at 7 AM, more than 500 people stood in the line. Frost still covered the ground.
A long line of people (some shivering) stretched out of the schoolyard throughout the day. Almost everyone I talked to waited for more than an hour to cast a vote. The atmosphere on Election Day, a national holiday in South Africa, was exuberant.
I had seen elections in 5 countries. Without a doubt, the ones in the US are the least joyous. I talked to one girl my age who was voting for the first time. She said she had practiced making X's all morning so that her first ballot would be perfect.
The community was jubilant, and I went home at the end of the day excited and full of hope. I wrote an e-mail to everyone I knew saying that Election Day should be a national holiday and a celebration of democracy at home in the US.
Source: Power Lines, by Jason Carter, p.245-6
Jun 1, 2003
On Health Care:
Many Africans die of AIDS, but none talk about it
A few weeks later, one of the border guards I had known from the square at Lochiel died in a car accident. The community conducted the funeral. All men lined up, shoveled dirt onto our friend's coffin, and passed the shovel to the next man.
The women sang. The men lined up and passed rocks to cover the grave. We went back to the family's house, washed the dirt from our hands in a small bucket, and ate.
From then on, I attended funerals about once a month, and learned more about the rituals each time. Many died of sickness and a lack of health care, in addition to car accidents.
And many died of AIDS-related illnesses--South Africa has one of the highest rates in the world--but no one in the community talked about the disease.
Source: Power Lines, by Jason Carter, p.155-6
Jun 1, 2003
On Principles & Values:
All people, regardless of accomplishments, are still people
Pres. Mandela and my grandfather asked each other about their businesses and their families. My grandfather insisted that we get a photo of just Mandela and me. I stood with Mandela while the former President of the US took our picture with a cheap
Polaroid camera. "Look! Here it comes. Its' developing!"I had been prepared to meet a legend, a man much larger than life. But this experience drove home the point that all people, regardless of what they have accomplished, are still people.
I have seen others approach my grandfather that way. Once a woman once ran up to him and screamed, "Oh, my God! Do you know who you are?"
I began my official Peace Corps service days later with this image of these 2 men. Just 2 plain old men concerned
about their retirement and their grandchildren, their lives the same size as everyone else's. I was inspired by the impact that one person can have. That thought would sustain me for the next 2 years.
Source: Power Lines, by Jason Carter, p. 63-5
Jun 1, 2003
On Technology:
Taught computer literacy to South African teens & teachers
[In Peace Corps in RSA] my efforts in teaching computer continued. Some days I taught lessons to Sandile and his friends, or the few teachers who lived in Lochiel. Sandile [was one of] my most loyal students. After they learned the basics of computer
literacy, we made all kinds of documents. Eventually, I would just lend the laptop to Sandile so he could play games or teach others how to use it. He and his friends knew more about computers than any other high school students in the history of Lochiel
Source: Power Lines, by Jason Carter, p.145
Jun 1, 2003
Page last updated: Feb 21, 2019