Has South Africa Overcome Apartheid?
Has South Africa Overcome Apartheid?
By Neil W. Blackmon, a senior writer for The Yanks Are Coming. He can be reached at neil@yanksarecoming.com or @nwb_USMNT.
With Fabio Capello’s 30 man preliminary roster springing more leaks in the British press than Nixon’s Watergate, and every other blog under the sun, including our very own Jon Levy, writing “Who will be on the US 30 man” posts a day before the rosters are due (@ midnight, Swiss time, whatever the hell that means), I thought I’d head in a different, darker direction. After all, when all is said and done, by late afternoon we’ll know via ESPN NEWS press conference what thirty men get the chance to wear the American shirt this summer. For some of these guys, it will be their only chance to wear the American shirt on the brightest stage. For all of them, it will mean something I can’t completely fathom. But it will happen. Even the Revolution in Rustenburg will come and go. Meanwhile, long after ESPN is done airing its inspiring World Cup Commercials (the Apartheid Ad—here, and the “Power of Ten” Ad, here, are particularly inspiring), long after the afternoon fluff pieces that precede and follow around-the-clock television coverage, long after the hot glow of the lights of the final July 11 in Johannesburg fades to the hushed glimmer of memory; life, in a manner hardly a one of us can completely fathom, will continue in post-Apartheid South Africa.
