The three nameless students had attended one of the university’s predecessors – Port Elizabeth Technikon – and had won the then beauty contest in 1984. We hoped the photograph might elicit their names or at the very least, trigger a debate around the validity of beauty pageants.
Instead, the faded photo of 30 years ago triggered a “racist” debate.
“This is racist” one Facebook fan responded using the #JuliusMalemaVoice hash tag …
And that was all it took for society to voice its opinion … until one or two realised that the said Malixole was simply yanking everyone’s chains.
Hadn’t anyone noticed that the “this is racist” comment had come with the #JuliusMalemaVoice hash tag?
Playing the race card, as he of the famous red beret band tends to do at every given opportunity, was simply this student’s way of poking fun …
And certainly many laughed.
But certainly many more still need to chuckle, to laugh out loud and guffaw at our wonderful differences (black, white and all the shades in between) because humour is a sure-fire way of helping us to move forward and away from the enforced separate development lifestyle of 20 years ago.
Ask Trevor Noah.
This South African comedian pokes fun at all of us – English, Afrikaans, black, white, coloured, Jewish, Chinese, young, and old – and in doing so, brings us closer together as a nation.
And so perhaps, as Malixole suggests, we all need to “take a chill pill” and learn to laugh at ourselves. LOL!
PS Can anyone identify these women?
In our present gender-conscious society am I the only one who thinks this photo is sexually objectifying women? I find that rather distasteful that a woman's beauty is so explicitly tied to her sextual objectification. Otherwise, beautiful, albeit white, they are indeed.
ReplyDelete