IN OUR FUTURE, YOU ARE 18 YEARS TOO LATE!!
HOORAY!! Somebody Let DASO out of its cave!!
“These DASO posters aren’t controversial or original – Benetton were doing this in the 80s. Mixed race couples are only shocking to dinosaurs” (Gareth Cliff, Twitter: 2012)
Three Democratic Alliance Students’ Organisation posters depicting different interracial relationships have gone viral on the internet, more specifically on social networks. According to the organisation these posters have served their purpose, which allegedly was to stimulate debate around the thorny and controversial issue of race in South Africa and to confront our “racist tendencies” (see here).
The SACDP has condemned the posters arguing that they promote sexual immorality. A M&G article comments as follows:
“Gana [Makashule Gana of DASO], however, differed, saying “to say the poster is sexual is taking it to extreme”. He said the posters were saying a lot, instead. “They [the two people on the picture] are embracing each other, and it shows in this country that we can find an opportunity to embrace each other”. He did not know why “there (were) negative comments about it [the poster]” as “it is a work of art that depicts a future that we [DA] would want to build”.”
Others have lambasted one of the posters saying that it is racist as it depicts a white male and a black female. The argument, as it goes, is that to portray a black female and a white male is gender bias, it reflects on the weakness of black females. A friend of mine even went so far as to say that ‘black women will only date white males for economic reasons and DASO is therefore playing on this racist position’. This is of course pure donkeypoo.
In my opinion, the posters are an embarrassment to DASO and its membership. They are neither controversial, nor can they serve as a proper yardstick to judge SA’s racial relations. In any society, however integrated it may claim to be, there will be conservatives and fundamentalists. In a similar fashion, there are South Africans (black and white) who strongly hold on to their pre-democratic or apartheid-era views about race and racial morality. However, since there are no laws preventing racial integration or promoting racial purity, the issue is moot and debating it will serve no meaningful purpose to the South African society. For an allegedly progressive lot, DASO seems to be chewing on dry bubble-gum.
But DASO, like its mother-organisation the DA, seems to be quite dry when it comes to political positions. These sorry-cries for opposition seem quite happy to flutter at other’s mistakes without properly suggesting alternatives. I challenge you to find me a policy or discussion paper promoted by DASO; if you find one, I will formally apologise for that comment.
The gullibility of South Africans and rise of social networks has afforded DASO much needed marketing millage, but let’s not confuse this with stimulating debate on thorny and controversial social issues. As a student organisation, DASO is not concerned about the trampling and killing of a parent at the University of Johannesburg or the beating of students at the Vaal. They are not concerned with the decline in academic standards or the much needed assistance to those who have not cut university point requirements and, will not be employed because of a lack of jobs and marketable skills. They are not concerned about the rise in campus teen pregnancy or the bureaucracy and inefficiency in university administration systems. Instead DASO is concerned with whether black and white South Africans can embrace.
Being recently let out of its cave, it seems that DASO is quite surprised by this strange phenomenon of interracial couples. After 18 years of democracy and many interracial marriages later, DASO wants to stimulate a debate about racial morality? The short answer is YES, now thank you and bye-bye!
Now to address the feminist / ‘pan-Africanist’ contention with the poster, those who argue that the poster is demeaning to black females need to call on DASO and ask for directions to the cave.
In a new democratic SA that promotes gender equality, females are given equal respect and their choices are respected without absurd justifications. Chris Rock once joked that black women are not attracted to white men, unless it helped with their bad credit. He also joked that black men are attracted to big (PC term) white females. Those who accepted these jokes as scientific facts need to immediately ask DASO for signup forms.
Send me you comments on bradleighcibane@gmail.com or pin me at 20F19069
