Twee werknemers van die manstydskrif FHM is geskors nadat hul grappe oor korrektiewe verkragting gemaak het.
“FHM is geskok oor die uiters beledigende opmerkings deur twee werknemers op hul privaat Facebook-profiele,” het Brendan Cooper, redakteur van FHM, gesê.
“Die inskrywings weerspieël op geen manier FHM se waardes nie. Die opinies is kwetsend, uiters beledigend en heeltemal onaanvaarbaar.”
Cooper het gesê tugstappe sal gedoen word teen die tydskrif se artikelredakteur, Max Barashenkov, en redaksionele assistent, Montle Moorosi.
Die grappe volg twee weke nadat Duduzile Zozo, ‘n lesbiër van Thokoza, vermoor is. Haar familie glo sy was ‘n slagoffer van korrektiewe verkragting.
Intussen het Sarah Britten in die M&G geskryf dat die grappe oor die huidige wit volksmoord in Suid-Afrika nie problematies is nie, want dis duidelik net grappe. Britten skryf as volg:
“So today, I am going to explain why I thought it was appropriate to tweet about #whitegenocide a few weeks ago — but why I thought the jokes about corrective rape by two FHM writers weren’t funny, and got them into trouble for good reason.
First, a bit of background. The #whitegenocide hashtag came about after Siyanda Mohutsiwa started tweeting about what she planned to do when blacks rose up against the whites after the death of Nelson Mandela.
Here’s a good example: Attention black SA: this is a time to get a driver’s license. Don’t worry. After #whitegenocide you can have any car you want. [Siyanda-Panda from: SiyandaWrites]
It was provocative and subversive. I felt somewhat disconcerted. What did I do? I joined in.
Here’s why:
1. The hashtag was clearly tongue in cheek, and it was being used by a self-described agent provocateur who has a track record of challenging preconceived ideas, both in her Thought Leader blog and on Twitter.
2. The mockery was not of actual murder (which is not funny), but the long-standing conspiracy theory that blacks would rise up against whites the moment Madiba dies. This is a ridiculous and stupid belief no matter how sincerely you hold it, and mocking it is a way of marking a distinction between what we accept as a commonly held belief, and what we do not.
3. I felt that the conspiracy theory was in itself offensively racist, so should be mocked in order to make my views on it clear. Addressing fears that many might feel afraid to express was a way to bring them into the open into a way that was healthier than discussing them around the braai.
4. If whites did not join in, then it would become and us vs them situation. Whites attend the Blacks Only comedy shows and laugh at David Kau’s jokes, so why shouldn’t they participate in a hashtag that mocks them?
5. Genocide, used in its correct historical context (as in the Holocaust, Armenia and Rwanda) is not funny at all. But claims of genocide where they are not justified debase the term and the gravity of what it means. The former secretary-general of Medecins Sans Frontieres, Alain Destexhe, has said that the word genocide has fallen victim to “a sort of verbal inflation, in much the same way as happened with the word fascist”.
Most of those who participated used the opportunity to demonstrate how completely unfounded fears of a “white genocide” are.”
Dit is duidelik dat die koerant aan Britten die geleentheid bied om die volksmoord te regverdig, nadat sy self aan die aanhitsing deelgeneem het.
