The movies
The iPodRacist?
I dunno. I don't view them as such, but I'm open to others' views. I guess it depends where you're coming from. And I think I ask the question because I know most of the people originating them are white, lending these graphics—ten years after apartheid, a sense of 'I don't really know you, but...'. For my part, and it's a good feeling, I see us.
They do the rounds on local networks, popping up on spam filters and end-user machines at work. The people receiving and downloading them are from every age group, culture, race, creed, etc. you can imagine.
And they gleefully pass them on.
However one views them, they're essentially South African and, if they say anything, it's that we're learning to laugh at ourselves.
I mean, really, where else...?
The Sunday afternoon drive
Note: I picked up a comment on HaloScan's comment management page from Rethabile. It's not showing below, so here it is:
I don't think I would consider their "exploitation" racist. The racism kicks in when the one looking at them utters a colour-based slur.Bloomers? Where the hell have you been these past fifteen years, Rethabile? Don't tell me you've yet to come across the "thong'? In France?
I want to say that the guy with the gumba-gumba is a scream, and a nice reminder of the African's love for music. But is he a scream or rather a pathetic sight, and a bad reminder of how far ZA still is from equality?
Perhaps it would be racist if other South African "colours" did not get funny photos about them circulated on the web. Then it would indeed send some sick message about Blacks.
And what happened to that girl's bloomers?
Qualifying Rethabile's opinion and call for balance is this post from early in August, pointing to a remarkable, but saddening, story by David Sylvester, the most poignant sentence of which reads, "The bottom line is this; I rode over 12000 miles on 2 continents through 15 states and 13 countries and broke 2 bikes in the process to get to a store in AFRICA called niggers."
