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I read this story about the cleaners involved in the Reitz video finally speaking out. It was on News24 last Monday and it made me so angry that I actually decided not to write about it. Despite my many bad habits, I don’t have high blood pressure and I want to keep it that way.
But it’s been more than a week and, unfortunately, I’m still practically foaming at the mouth so I might as well get it off my chest and put it out there. In the mean time, of course, the story has developed further, as last Friday the new rector of UFS, Jonathan Jansen, dropped the charges against the students as an act of reconciliation.
Now just so we’re clear – in general I'm all for reconciliation, and in this specific case I certainly don’t want to contribute my two cents' worth on what Jansen decided about the students’ fate. I'm sure that man's under enough pressure from all sides already. (By the way, Verashni Pillay has made an excellent, if a little sophisticated, point regarding that)
No, what pissed me off, and what I'm ranting about today, is the user comments posted to the original News24 article.
Now, I do realize that it has become almost clichèd to point out that many commenters on open internet sites are cowards hiding behind their anonymity to voice hate-filled opinions they would never have the guts to admit to otherwise. I don't want to rehash that old point. But the comments drawn by this article surely reached a new low.
Honestly, at times I wonder who the people behind names like "Green skinned" or "The cheeze moved" are. To give you an idea, comments ranged from the plainly bizarre “they were enjoying it just as much as the students did” to the painfully stupid “if it was the other way ‘round it wouldn’t have been an issue” to just plain sad "20 gazillion people are killed by black people in this country every day and no one cares, but piss in an old lady’s food and all hell breaks loose!” .
Whaaaat? Can anyone really believe that if a bunch of black students did this to white middle-aged ladies - for fun, and videotaped it - it wouldn’t have been a major incident? Or that the women who were being humiliated were having a good old fun time? Really? I mean, really?
And as for "everyone ignores crime but focuses on this innocent prank" argument... Are we even living in the same country? Jeez, crime is practically ALL the newspapers ever write about! Or have we come to the point where we're drawing the 'newsworthy topic' line at murder? As long as you don’t kill anyone you shouldn't be condemned? Can someone please explain the logic behind that argument?
The point, of course, is that this despicable deed was not done by a bunch of criminals. That's exactly what makes the whole incident so shocking. The people commiting these acts were the cream of this country's crop, people with the financial and intellectual means to know better. What makes this story so newsworthy, is that - like the troops smiling from the photos of torture in the Abu Graib jail - these boys believed that what they were doing was simply a bit of fun. And in doing so, they showed exactly how dark the racist underbelly of this country still is.
Now, at best, when something like this is exposed to the rational, compassionate light of day, it can lead to a new awareness and sensitivity. On News 24, however, it lead to comments such as these...
“As far as I can remember the ladies seemed to enjoy the "fun", a nasty prank that got out of hand. Now they are crying for the cameras, and probably getting a lot of money for it! People (incl a lot of innocent white folk) are killed daily without politicians reacting nearly as upset as in this case. SNAP OUT OF IT!!!!”
“If this prank had been pulled on white poeple [sic] it would have been a semi-sick prank, now it's an international affair. Oh well! All's well that end well hey Koko. You won't need to clean any more thanks to the Sunday Times. We have so much more reportable stuff in this country than this drivel.”
I guess the reason all this upset me so much, finally, is because of how it made me feel. About my country, my people, and my race. See, when I first learnt about this incident, my immediate knee jerk reaction was to run out and try to convince people that we're not all like that. Ons is nie almal so nie!
Only, after reading the comments written by my fellow (white) South Africans, I'm just not so sure about that anymore.
Lili Radloff is the Deputy Editor of Women24. Follow her on Twitter @liliradloff
