A FAMOUS GROUSE
HERE at the Mahogany Ridge there came headlong immersion into the slough of despond as the uproar over the latest racial insults on social media reached a crescendo. The slough, if you must know, is a very cheap but otherwise drinkable red wine and copious amounts were required to counter the regulars’ rising gorge.
It is fitting and proper to be disapproving of bad behaviour. But there is something gadarene about the scramble to embrace outrage and puff oneself up with indignation like a horned lizard and go puce in the face at every idiotic gaffe out there.
And so this business of Matthew Theunissen and Ntokozo Qwabe. Individuals from opposing ends of the political spectrum they’ve perhaps done us all a favour by outing themselves as racist jerks. They have brought shame and opprobrium on themselves and their families and that, maybe, should have been the end of it.
We should be wary, as Nietzsche noted, of those in whom the urge to punish is strong, but sadly our appetite for vengeance and the public humiliation of others is boundless.
Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille has it bad, and has complained to the SA Human Rights Commission about Theunissen’s description of government as “a bunch of k*****s” and “black f***ing c**s”.
His post, vile as it was, was only up for a few seconds, then deleted. But that was time enough. Thanks to those who know Theunissen, his post was copied and sent onwards into the eternal ether of the web, there to further enrage. Spite is right when it comes to shaming others, and condemnation was widespread.
Theunissen has publicly apologised for his idiocy in an excoriating grovel before the virtue-sharing radio talk show host John Maytham.
No such apology has come from Qwabe. The Rhodes Must Fall activist remains as defiant as ever, insisting that his bullying last week of Observatory waitress Ashleigh Schultz in the “tips for land” saga was in no way racist.
Little mention has been made here of the RMF’s Wandile Dlamini who was Qwabe’s dinner date that evening and has been identified as the “catalyst” in this incident. Described by Qwabe as “a radical non-binary trans black activist”, Dlamini has been spared the harsh glare of disapproval thanks largely to Qwabe, who has bravely hogged the limelight in this matter. The Rhodes scholar may be a gentleman after all; perhaps a romance is in the offing.
There are those commentators who have pointed out that both Theunissen and Qwabe have degrees from top local universities and, as a result, should have known better.
Perhaps, but this business of racial outbursts by the supposedly educated on social media is not a uniquely South African phenomenon. The Sinn Féin leader, Gerry Adams, is another who supposedly should have known better.
But last Sunday, watching the Tarantino movie Django Unchained, which tells the story of a freed slave who sets out to rescue his wife from a vicious Mississippi plantation owner with the aid of a German bounty hunter, Adams tweeted: “Watching Django Unchained — A Ballymurphy Nigger”.
He too had deleted his comment, but the right-wing Washington Times had picked it up, accusing Adams of using the “most toxic of all racial slurs”.
There came, predictably, a flood of outrage — but Adams went on to defend himself by suggesting the tweet was ironic and had to be seen in the context of Northern Ireland’s struggle for independence. He’d also referred to the character Django as an “uppity Fenian”.
Writing in the Guardian, the black British columnist Gary Younge, has declared that it was “grotesque” to judge Adams, “who has a life’s work of internationalism and antiracist solidarity”, by a single tweet.
“Racism,” he said, “is a system of oppression. It should not be reduced to series of gaffes. It not only cheapens the charge but essentially redefines it. Racism becomes not the subjugation of a people that has its roots in history, economics and power, but a series of bloopers in which the unfortunate are caught out. A matter of politics becomes an issue of politeness. The institutional is relegated to an indiscretion.”
Younge further sounded a warning that is worth noting: “With the help of diversity consultants and a cautious manner, the careful can carry on doing bad things so long as they don’t say the wrong thing. That won’t get rid of racism. It’ll just give us some of the best-mannered racists in the world.”
That said, there is perhaps a case to be made for moving on. There really are more important things to get in a froth over than the unbelievable stupidity on social media.
A version of this article first appeared in the Weekend Argus.
