Support is pouring in for the University of Witwatersrand’s expelled SRC president.
Mcebo Dlamini’s Facebook post that mentioned Hitler has sparked outrage from the South African Union of Jewish Students.
Students from the Rhodes Must Fall campaign and activist group, Open Stellenbosch, are marching in support of Mcebo Dlamini.
The Higher Education Transformation Network also says the decision to expel him was harsh.
It says action is being taken against Dlamini when other students from Cape Town and Stellenbosch universities got a slap on the wrist for racist incidents.
The Network was referring to, among others, the white students who painted their faces black.
Azealia Banks is at the center of another racially charged controversy after posting a picture of herself being transformed into an ice princess for a new music video and tagging it “#WhiteFace.” Later explaining herself on Twitter, the outspoken rapper created a firestorm.
In recent months, Banks has frequently made headlines with her Twitter rants about everything from the Bill Cosby rape allegations to slave reparations. She’s repeatedly slammed Iggy Azalea, called out Kendrick Lamar, and generally been a lightning rod for debates about race and society. On Monday, she decided to post her “whiteface” photo. People got upset. Banks took to Twitter:
Lol u crackers wish I cared enough to be doing whiteface. I’m becoming the ICE PRINCESS YAAAAAAS. I use the word crAcker just as much as I use the word n*gger… Don’t get mad now… You lot are all so easily moved… DAMN… Yall really r hype. This is not white face this is my Ice Princess makeup. Calm tf down LOL… And sidebar.. When snoop did whiteface YALL all thought that sh*t was hilarious and funny right? #MISOGYNOIR at its finest!!
Banks then turned her attention to what she claims are the media’s constant, wrong accusations of homophobia. Here’s what she had to say about that:
Gay media has to stop using homophobia as a means to try and victimize itself and scar the names of its opponents… Phobia would imply that I am scared of gay men or dislike them because of what they choose to do sexually… I promise, no one gives a f*ck what u decide to do in your private lives. But I also promise, that no matter how bitchy and clever you think you are.. That I will out-bitch you… But I’m just going to ignore yall from here on out cause YALL are really just reaching and looking for any reason to insert ur selves In the Azealia Banks story.
Banks concluded by declaring, “The gay white media is so evil, ugly and delusional.”
The Wits Centre for Diversity Studies on Friday expressed concern at the number of racial incidents across South Africa over the past few months.
“South Africa has not entered a post-racial, colour-blind era,” centre director Professor Melissa Steyn said in a statement.
“These incidents make it clear that transformation is not a linear process, and that we should not assume that the passage of time since the 1994 transition necessarily translates into a steady, concomitant erosion of racism and racially abusive behaviour.”
She highlighted some of the incidents including the so-called “blackface” saga where two white University of Pretoria (UP) students dressed up like domestic workers and smeared black paint on their faces in August. UP launched an investigation into the incident but the outcome was not yet known.
Another incident outlined by the centre made headlines on Thursday.
Two white Netcare 911 paramedics attending a road-rage incident in Johannesburg are accused of not attending to the black injured man, who was bleeding from axe wounds, and instead only attending to the white attacker.
After video footage of the scene emerged, Netcare 911 suspended the two paramedics not for the allegation, but instead for leaving the accident scene prematurely.
This month, another incident that made headlines was a white Cape Town dentist who allegedly beat a black gardener with a sjambok. The assault case in court is pending.
In Limpopo, an animal clinic and an office park came under fire after allegations of toilet segregation emerged. The SA Human Rights Commission is investigating both matters.
“While South Africans are shocked by such acts of thoughtlessness, hostility, and violence, we cannot afford to dismiss their significance simply as that there is a handful of ‘bad apples’ out there,” said Steyn.
“It is clear that it is time to seriously take stock… We need to develop a vocabulary to unpack differences, and become more cognisant of what may be required of us to build a society in which all people feel valued, respected, and safe.”
South Africa is apparently experiencing another tedious outburst of moral outrage about an innocuous case of “blackface” put on by two women students at the University of Pretoria for a 21st-birthday party.
I try to keep the mass media at a safe distance and therefore do not listen to radio, watch TV or buy any newspapers. The internet is a more clinical way of accessing information without background shrieks, unless it is YouTube. Yet, judging from responses on Twitter, there is some hullabaloo going on and the two students have now been “charged” by the university and will be subjected to a disciplinary hearing. They could face expulsion or some other form of punishment.
South Africa has slid so far down into an abyss of sadism, crime, murder and rape that it seems entirely risible that anyone should care about how white students make up their faces at a fancy-dress party. Yet, as one of the zealous anti-racists in Johannesburg, Gillian Schutte, once intoned in desperation: “Where is the outrage?”
Indeed. We need outrage to distract us from our abject failure as a society and even the increasing signs of a failed state in what used to be called the “Republic of South Africa”. Hardened and jaded by armed robberies, shootings in broad daylight, car hijackings, murder and torture of farmers, endemic corruption and the highest incidence of rape on the planet, the average South African – black or white – could hardly care about the latest student prank in Pretoria.
Yet the media and academic elite, in their slavish imitation of American political correctness, have to have their outrage and moral hysteria. There is something particularly British about moral hysteria which I suppose one could trace back to the time of Cromwell’s puritanical rule and which Fleet Street still has on tap whenever the United Kingdom has to rally public opinion behind another BP or Shell oil war somewhere.
It is certainly ironic that these days British moral hysteria is often projected towards Russia where once the rigours of communist zeal held sway. I was surprised to learn that anti-Semitism in the USSR carried the death penalty. As I do not know any Russian, I could not tell you which words merited a bullet in the head. Were it not for the fact that the death penalty had been abolished in 1994, one could well imagine how “racism” or politically incorrect utterances might soon become a capital offence in South Africa.
Thus South Africa gets its propensity for anti-racist outbursts from both Britain and the ex-USSR where many of the post-1994 leadership spent their formative years. Also, the Marxist-Leninism of the USSR has migrated to the USA in the form of so-called “cultural Marxism” which is the staple at most American universities, slavishly imitated by our local campuses. As Paul Craig Roberts put it recently in one of his sharply-worded commentaries on US-UK war-mongering:
If we are honest and have the strength to face reality, we will realize that the Soviet Union did not collapse. It simply moved, along with Mao and Pol Pot, to Washington and London.
In 1934 or so, shortly before the University of Pretoria completely abolished tuition in English in favour of Afrikaans, a Union Jack was burnt in front of the Old Arts Building by a young poet, WJP Erlank, who wrote under the pen name Eitemal. The English press was outraged, leading to his expulsion as a student but he instantly became an Afrikaner hero.
How the tables have been turned! It is certainly indicative of Afrikaner powerlessness that an English-speaking student, Thorne Godinho of the liberal DA’s youth movement DASO on the campus, was able to engineer the current outburst by publishing the photograph of the two Afrikaans girls dressed up as black servants on Facebook and get the university to punish them. If you want to know the meaning of “kowtow”, just watch today’s Afrikaans university administrators in action.
In more senses than one, Afrikaners find themselves completely at the mercy of latter-day zealots who are endlessly beating their quasi-religious precepts about race and racism into them. The slightest semantic or symbolic deviation is immediately punished and the guilty ones pilloried or subjected to a witch-hunt that will ruin their careers or “shame” them for years to come. It was the case during the so-called “Reitz 4” incident, as well as earlier this year during the photographing of a women’s residence initiation ceremony in Potchefstroom where for one split second and from a certain angle it could resemble a Nazi salute. Now the University of Pretoria is experiencing the same spate of orchestrated “outrage”.
Mr Ponty Thuynsma, 76, in hospital. Photo: Lisa Hnatowicz, Beeld
Over the past few days an elderly Afrikaner, Koos Jonker, was literally beaten to death by blacks near Ellisras. In a separate incident, Mr. Ponty Thuynsma was tortured with a hot iron and made to drink petrol in his home east of Pretoria. Thuynsma had to be admitted to the intensive care unit of the Wilgers hospital (see picture). However, these murderous, sadistic incidents pale into insignificance next to purely linguistic or symbolic transgressions of the dominant anti-racist theology committed by Afrikaans students.
In the USA, African Americans have been endowed with a special “minority” status akin to a sacerdotal class with special privileges protecting them against public criticism. As a special caste they also need to be treated with above-average respect. All of this dogma has been imported wholesale into South Africa, where blacks form a majority. Declaring the majority, who already has a monopoly on political power, in need of special protection and beyond criticism or occasional mocking quickly leads to a Soviet-style totalitarian society.
There is increasing censorship and after this latest “blackface” incident, some people think that the movies of comedian Leon Schuster should be banned as he often dons blackface and imitates black slang and speech patterns.
It is also beyond my comprehension how the South African “nation” as it has been defined, can be so criminal and morally depraved, yet at the same time given to an acute sensitivity or what we call in Afrikaans kleinserigheid, touchiness. Logically, the same rapist or murderer who finds torture acceptable conduct, would object to a white girl in “blackface” or someone using a term that is ethnically off-colour.
Of course, in the media and the universities there is an entire language and thought police force waiting to denounce anyone who deviates from their increasingly puritanical norms. By force of “outrage” and moral hysteria, they impose their contradictory values on us. Everyone who does not agree with them is vilified as a “Nazi”, “fascist”, “racist”, “white supremacist”, “sexist”, “homophobe” or other label within their impoverished catechism.
I almost wrote “secular catechism”. But there is nothing secular about it and its acolytes certainly do not subscribe to the values of the European Enlightenment. Tolerance and freedom of speech are not part of their belief system. It is a real religion with a fairly simple dogma and enough zealots to patrol the boundaries of our words and our actions. They do not countenance any form of heresy and at best will allow “sinners” to repent and submit to a programme of re-education.
Or “discipline”, that Leninist word for those deviating from the party line.
However, the strategic thrust of the current campaign around the Afrikaans universities is to oust the last remaining Afrikaners from those institutions so that they may be entirely controlled by English cultural Marxists. In its wisdom, the ANC government has decided that “South Africa needs more PhDs” and is throwing money at the problem. So apart from serving the “Red Church” as Albert Camus called it, one may also eject some hapless Afrikaner academic from his post amid rising incomes in the tertiary-education sector. Hence the witch-hunts against dissident students and lecturers at all the Afrikaans universities.
In the nineteenth century, anglicisation in South Africa was justified by British imperialism; now it is based on race and political correctness. Signs of “racism”, as defined, detract from the language and cultural rights of Afrikaners and even their access to tertiary education.
Until the final victory of Sovietised English over Afrikaans is trumpeted in South Africa, the semantic war is bound to intensify. We might as well all put on “war paint”; if that can still be said without causing offence to native Americans.
A Florida Republican congressional candidate’s campaign sign was vandalized with whiteface paint last week in a district with overwhelmingly Democratic voter registration. The attack follows a string of bias incidents against black Republicans.
Glo Smith, who reports that she has also had a number of signs stolen, tells National Review Online she became aware of the racist defacement of an eight-foot-by-four-foot sign Tuesday.
The sign was situated on private property in view of Interstate 10 in Jacksonville. The vandal sprayed white paint over the face of Smith, who is African-American. The paint job appears to be carefully done and leaves the eyes untouched, creating a very creepy effect.
Two Republican contenders joined in deploring the racist attack, however.
“We expect signs to be tampered with or stolen,” Smith says, “but not to this extent.” She has not reported the episode to police, but a tweet from the Smith campaign blew up over the weekend.
“There have been some comments out there that this may have been caused by bigotry. This is a message that she is an African American woman who is a Republican and therefore has a white point of view.”
Angela Merkel greets one of the ‘Wise Men’ at the Chancellery in Berlin
Despite a growing PC backlash against it, blackface is still hugely popular in Germany, where people insist they aren’t racist
With Karneval ready to kick off later this month, many in Germany are picking out their festive getups and preparing to drink as much Hefeweizen as possible.
It has a long history in this country of roughly 82 million, where Nazism is banned.
“It’s horrible that black people are being portrayed as clowns and funny-looking people,” says Tahir Della, spokesperson for the Initiative for Black People in Germany, an anti-racism group. “It’s degrading.”
Hougan Jean Claude is possessed by the Spirit Ogou. Ogou is the male warrior spirit who wields a machete during the ceremony. Ogou is known as a tough task master who regularly calls people out at ceremonies to demand that the become initiated into the Vodou religion.
Mockery, if not total degradation, is part of the history of Germany’s Karneval. Though the holiday itself goes back further, the tradition of wearing costumes developed during the 1800s in the western part the country. At the time, the Germans were under French rule, and they used Karneval as a chance to mock their foreign overlords.
In the modern era, the mockery has moved into other realms. It’s all supposed to be in good fun. One advertisement for a costume on Amazon features a white actor in blackface with cartoonish red lips, a minstrel-like smile, a spear in one hand and a bone in the other (the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment). Another costume on Karneval-Megastore, a site run by the German company Kultfaktor, features a man in blackface wearing a grass skirt with a bone through his nose.
The company later apologized, saying it had returned them to the manufacturer, and expressing “regret and dismay” that anyone would think these outfits were racist.
“Karneval is all about having fun,” says the Kultfaktor spokesperson. “Of course we play with clichés, but this fact also applies at Karneval to all categories of people. We also have costumes that take light-skinned people for a ride, and this may be overlooked.”
For light-skinned people, stereotypes about black people linger: That they’re lazy, stupid, brutish and subhuman.
In Germany today, many claim that minstrel shows were a uniquely American phenomenon with little or no history on the continent. But blackface is sometimes shunned in the U.S., though there are some glaring exceptions.
Europe has been slower to change. In Germany, chocolate-covered marshmallows are still often called Negerkuss, or “Negro kiss,” and some German-made candy was pulled from the shelves in Sweden just a few weeks ago, following customer complaints that its ads were racist.
Germany’s blackface problems go far beyond costumes or candy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel posed with children dressed in blackface last year for an official event.
Two years ago, a German theater chose to feature actors in blackface—a decision that sparked online backlash. At the time, some argued that there weren’t enough black actors in Germany.
So why is it still acceptable in Germany? Part of the problem is that racism here means Nazism, according to T. Vicky Germain, a filmmaker and activist in Berlin. If you try and explain why something’s racist, people will often give you an annoyed look and say they aren’t Nazis. “That’s a serious problem,” says Germain.
Just two months ago, nearly 7 million people tuned in to ZDF, a major, publicly funded German TV station, when the program presenter on Wetten, Dass…? (Wanna Bet That…?) dared the audience to come dressed as two characters in a well-known children’s book. For one of the characters, the presenter suggested audience members use “coal or shoe polish” to blacken their faces.
The studio audience complied, and so did the mayor of Augsburg, a city of in southern Germany. After the incident, the network refused to apologize, and the local newspaper argued that the incident could not be called racist because audience members were dressing up like a “bold, adventurous and sympathetic hero.”
As one Reddit user, whose name has since been deleted, writes: “I bet that about 99 percent of Germans could not tell you what a minstrel show or blackface is. [The children’s character] has a positive image here and this has nothing to do with a minstrel type black caricature at all.”
On social media, some were outraged, as the hashtag #blackface spread widely. But the practice is still so common—in costume ads and elsewhere—that it’s not likely to disappear anytime soon.
Two Swedish college students have apologized for showing up to a costume party in blackface in an attempt to impersonate reggae musicians.
The incident took place at a party thrown by the Lund University Technology Management student association, a group of about 80 masters students studying economics and technology, TheLocal.se reported Friday.
The incident raised eyebrows, particularly at Lund after students in 2011 staged a mock slave auction that drew international condemnation as being racist.
The students, whose names were not reported, said their intent was not to offend party-goers — one of whom snapped a picture and sent it to local media — but to pay tribute to reggae icon Bob Marley.
“We haven’t intentionally done something insulting or racist,” one of the students said. “But after the fact we’ve realized that painting our faces black offends some people.”
The group’s president said it was “unfortunate” that some people misinterpreted the students’ painted faces as racist.
“It was an innocent costume party,” Elin Wennerstroem, the group’s president said.
Other in attendance weren’t as forgiving.
Kalle Wigren, who lives near where the party took place, said he saw the incident and was offended.
“When a white person puts black makeup on their face to look like a black person and then proceeds to make fun of the situation, it can’t be anything other than racism,” he said. – UPI.COM
Dunkin’ Donuts has apologized for the “insensitivity” of an advertising campaign in Thailand featuring a woman in blackface makeup to promote a new chocolate flavored doughnut.
The Dunkin’ Donuts franchise in Thailand came under criticism Friday after Human Rights Watch called the advertisements “bizarre and racist.”
The company’s chief executive in Thailand initially defended the campaign, but the U.S. headquarters quickly followed up with an apology.
“We are working with our Thailand franchisee to immediately pull the ad. DD recognizes the insensitivity of this spot,” Dunkin’ Donuts said in a tweet posted on its official U.S. website after complaints erupted on Twitter, in a variety of blogs and in mainstream American media.
The local franchise launched the advertisement earlier this month to promote its new “Charcoal Donut.” In posters, TV commercials and on Facebook, the campaign shows a smiling woman with blackface makeup, bright pink lipstick and a jet black 1950s-style beehive hairdo holding up a bitten black doughnut. The slogan in Thai reads: “Break every rule of deliciousness.”
Critics say the image is reminiscent of 19th and early 20th century American stereotypes for black people that are now considered offensive symbols of a racist era.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said it was shocked to see an American brand name running an advertising campaign that would draw “howls of outrage” if released in the United States.
“It’s both bizarre and racist that Dunkin’ Donuts thinks that it must color a woman’s skin black and accentuate her lips with bright pink lipstick to sell a chocolate doughnut,” said Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch. “Dunkin’ Donuts should immediately withdraw this ad, publicly apologize to those it’s offended and ensure this never happens again.”
The campaign hasn’t ruffled many in Thailand, where it’s common for advertisements to inexplicably use racial stereotypes. A Thai brand of household mops and dustpans called “Black Man” uses a logo with a smiling black man in a tuxedo and bow tie. One Thai skin whitening cream runs TV commercials that say white-skinned people have better job prospects than those with dark skin. An herbal Thai toothpaste says its dark-colored product “is black, but it’s good.”
Hours before the apology was issued by Dunkin’ Donuts headquarters, the company’s chief executive in Thailand dismissed the criticism as “paranoid American thinking.”
“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” the CEO Nadim Salhani said in a telephone interview. “We’re not allowed to use black to promote our doughnuts? I don’t get it. What’s the big fuss? What if the product was white and I painted someone white, would that be racist?”
Salhani said that the Thai franchise of Dunkin’ Donuts operates independently of the American operation and that doughnut sales have increased about 50 percent since the campaign was launched around two weeks ago, which he attributed to curiosity about the new advertisements.
“Not everybody in the world is paranoid about racism,” said Salhani, a Lebanese expatriate in Thailand who said his teenage daughter was the model featured in the campaign. “I’m sorry, but this is a marketing campaign, and it’s working very well for us.” – AP
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