Coloured by Kuli?
2011-02-28 13:40
Essie Moses
Sunday World columnist Nomakula (Kuli) Roberts ruffled a few feathers of colour at the weekend. Her most recent potion of witches brew has seemingly boiled over, spewing its venomous poisons on the coloured women of Cape Town.
I must admit, some of the generalisations got me thinking...for instance, I didn’t know that coloured women apparently "breed as if Allan Boesak sent them on a mission to increase the coloured race" - okay, that offends me! But I did snigger, just a little, after reeling at the horror...besides, I doubt Elna would stand for it.
Nor did I know that coloured people "eat fish like they’re trying to deplete the ocean"...or that coloured women "love making love and leave even the randiest negro exhausted". (Not sure what man in his right mind would find that a problem.)
But why all the fuss? It's not the first time Roberts has written this kind of thing - she's written far more controversial columns than the one in question.
And yes, columnists have been axed for "controversial/racist" columns in the past - the most notable being David Bullard. Uncolonised Africa wouldn't know what it was missing. Remember that one - need I say more?
I don't think Roberts’s column even touches sides...it's not nearly in the same league...or is it a little too tongue-in-cheek?
Opinions in our office vary - and some are of the opinion the column is racist, and wrong. And that’s the end of that.
Yes, it reinforces stereotypes, blah, blah, but I'm not sure it's that offensive. Really? Have we become maybe just a tad too sensitive? Or am I not sensitive enough?
Or have coloured people been poked fun at for too long - and are now just plain gatvol.
Reading between the lines at various reactions to the column, it smacks of a case of "yes, my skin's brown, I have all my front teeth and no, I did not grow up in Mitchell's Plain. So for god's sake, don't box me"!
And for the record, I have all my front teeth, I wish I looked like I'd just popped out of an Usher video, and I am not violent... but don’t touch me on my ma se...
- Estrelita Moses is Day Editor of News24.com.
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