{"id":1525,"date":"2026-06-15T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/?p=1525"},"modified":"2026-06-12T17:37:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T22:37:02","slug":"divide-and-conquer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/divide-and-conquer\/","title":{"rendered":"Divide and Conquer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the key throughlines from my time in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa, was the theme of division. Division was an evil and malicious tool that supported minority white rule both before and during apartheid.\u00a0 Division was seen everywhere – tribal divisions, race-based divisions, urban vs. rural divisions, economic divisions, educational divisions, access divisions, political divisions, and the list goes on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One example of the venality of divisions was seen in Soweto under apartheid.\u00a0 Soweto was and is a very large township in Johannesburg.\u00a0During apartheid it was divided into different areas for different tribes.\u00a0Not only did this reflect racial segregation, the government very intentionally located tribes next to each other who had conflicts. In this way, the government stoked inter-tribal conflict so that the oppressed under apartheid would find it harder to band together to work against apartheid rule.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Nelson Mandela observed in A Long Walk to Freedom<\/em>, apartheid literally means \u201capartness\u201d. It was \u201ca monolithic system that was diabolical in its detail, inescapable in its reach, and overwhelming in its power.\u201d South Africa experienced both \u201cgrand apartheid\u201d and \u201cpetty apartheid\u201d. Petty apartheid focused on segregation by race in parks, theaters, libraries, restaurants, buses.\u00a0Grand apartheid was focused on systemic, legalistic, and geographic racism (land rights, political suppression, removal from urban centers.). It included stripping Black Africans (or Bantus) of their citizenship (they were only citizens of their tribal homelands) so that they could not claim a right to representation in governing of the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Apartheid Museum illustrates so many appalling elements of apartheid.  Here are two signs from apartheid hanging in the entrance to the museum illustrated division:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"A<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"A<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Division was everywhere – at every storefront, on every street, and sometimes in family homes. We were told that at one point the government had a pseudo-scientific \u201cpencil test\u201d to determine who was Black and who was \u201cColored\u201d (the South African term for mixed race). If a pencil could stay in someone\u2019s hair, they were classified as Black.\u00a0If it fell out, they were classified as White or mixed race – and those classifications impacted not only family dynamics (if different members of the family were classified differently), they impacted every aspect of someone\u2019s life and future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am writing about this singular and malicious and – as Mandela said – diabolical focus on separating people, because it resonates with the world we live in today.\u00a0Everywhere we turn we can see an emphasis on division – we see leaders and neighbors stoking division, we see people \u201cothering\u201d those who look different or think differently, we see intentional extremism as a means of dividing people, we see divisions by geography and religion and race and language and place of birth and economic status – and I could keep going.\u00a0 We have lost the thread of common values, the social good, and agreed-upon principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I lead in the community college setting, I am reminded to pay careful attention to the ways that we intentionally and unintentionally divide people.\u00a0 We might intend something good when we divide students based on \u201ccollege readiness\u201d.\u00a0We might intend something good when we think in terms of adjunct faculty and full-time faculty.\u00a0We might intend something good when we think \u201cwe\u201d (or \u201cthey\u201d) own a process or a responsibility or an interaction.\u00a0 But in the community college setting, we are they and they are we.\u00a0In the community college setting, we are all, as our Chancellor says, helpers and teachers.\u00a0In the community college setting, we serve all students who walk through our doors.\u00a0 In the community college setting, we all contribute to the betterment of our Central Texas community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All praise to union, accord, connection, and common cause. May we never intentionally (or unintentionally) seek to divide and conquer. May we always focus on the community college mission that unifies and harmonizes and binds us together.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the key throughlines from my time in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa, was the theme of division. Division was an evil and malicious tool that supported minority white rule both before and during apartheid.\u00a0 Division was seen everywhere – tribal divisions, race-based divisions, urban vs. rural divisions, economic divisions, educational divisions, access […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-updates"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1525"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1534,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525\/revisions\/1534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}