I have often whinged about the crass comments beneath articles on South Africa news and opinion sites. Aside from the usual stereotyping of race, trolling and usual moronic activities, the one that pisses me off the most looks like this:
Haibo...des ting is so stuped!! I scheem Juliaas desind des format! Eish eish.
You can see the original comment here: Quota robs team of victory.
It annoys me that these are published as they are quite evidently and blatantly racist. That comment was allegedly left by a reader called Sipho which is quite obviously a spoof name as the commenter is trying to rip off black people.
Evidently the use of Haibo and Eish eish are used to typify the alleged black person commenting and the accent formed by the spelling of the words is there for no other reason than to promote stupidity.
It is rather obvious that people who are not English speaking South Africans can spell in English and don't type like their accent.
Would our media organisations also publish comments that rip off an Afrikaner accent in the same way? If, underneath an article about Afriforum buggering up the organisation of a march, I typed a comment that said "I can laaik to fink I are a hero but I is not because I is going to cook the mielies" would it be published?
And is it adding to public discourse?
And is it relevant at all?
Or is it offensive to Afrikaners because I would be portraying them as stupid?
From my point of view it's offensive and relates solely to a mentality that people who talk in an accent are stupid. Typing that nonsense does nothing but try to support that message.
And it's a deeply racist and disgusting thing to do. No matter whose accent is mimicked while trying to make a point.
Can anyone tell me when ripping off an accent during an argument was done tastefully, or was necessary?
And do we STILL think that people who don't speak the way we do are automatically less intelligent?
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1 comment:
I say, old bean... offhand, I'd say that 'ripping off' an accent or such-like possibly adds to the social discourse only when it is done in an obviously parodic - nay, satirical way. For example, PD Uys mimicking stereotypes in his various incarnations is obviously to reflect a self-awareness of stigma. This is intended to allow the watcher to 'laugh at themselves' in the absurdity of it all. I say 'intention', though it seems often that people miss the point. - James Smith-Smythe-Smith III, Esq., Huntingdon.
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